Mission Fallen Angel
by Mandy Spades
Summary: Max had been stuck in the school all 16 years of her life, and escaping forces her to leave her friends behind. 6 months later, with the help of the CSM she starts looking for her friends, rescuing mutants along the way. Meanwhile, iTex recruits 16 year old Fang to their ranks, under the false guise of another CSM, he's assigned Mission Fallen Angel. Full Summary Inside. Fax-Eggy
1. Chapter 1

**FULL SUMMARY:**

**Max has been stuck in the school all sixteen years of her life. Her only view of the outside world comes from Jeb's stories and the films the white coats show her and the other mutants. She's the oldest experiment Itex have, so between her and Jeb, she takes on the responsibility of protecting the younger kids from Itex - whatever that entails. Because they are family. Max's flock (even if they're not all avian).  
>While 15 year old Iggy, and 9 year old Wren happen to be 2% bird, Star, Kate, Ratchet, and Holden all have different types of DNA. And then of course there's 13 year old Ari, kept as a control subject, and as vulnerable as humans come.<br>After years of attempting escape from hell, Max finally manages it, though sadly, she crash lands alone, in the Martinez's back garden. Luckily for her, the Martinez's are the founders of the CSM, a government funded program to stop the atrocities of Itex. With their help, Max scours Itex's all over the state, desperately looking for the flock and rescuing any other mutants she finds along the way.**  
><strong>Meanwhile, in her absence, Itex had been building project Fallen Angel, searching for their firstmost important experiment. Erasers are never good at blending in, so Itex decides to recruit humans; and under the name of the Institute for Higher Living, while posing as a government friendly spy school, they recruit Nick Walker - otherwise known as Fang.  
>And when Maximum Ride herself walks into Fang's high school, Fang finds himself on his first really challenging mission - to become friends with this mysterious girl and find out what she knows about Itex. Fang thinks it'll help to bring down Itex, Max thinks Fang's weird, and Itex thinks that this is the perfect opportunity to find out how much she's told the government through the CSM - because she's never been one to give into commands, and if they brought her in by force, they wouldn't get anything out of her. Plus, using Fang might just kill two birds with one stone...<strong>

**Fax&Eggy**  
><strong>A few very minor characters<strong>

**Again, like my last stories, I've decided to leave a little factoid at the end; so even if you read till the end of the chapter and don't think it was worth it, then at least you've learned something - so it wasn't a complete waste of time :L**

**Disclaimer: Much that I love Maximum Ride, it belongs to James Patterson [insert usual disclaimer stuffs here]**

**Hope you enjoy :)**

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><p><span>Chapter 1<span>:  
><span>Fight, Flight, and Far Too Much Real Life for a Bird-Kid<span>

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><p><span>MAX POV<span>

The door slammed against the white wall with a bang. Light from the corridor outside flooded the room and I curled up tighter, squinting at the doorway, watching through my eyelashes as my white coat, Dr Hagen, leaned heavily on the doorframe.

He loped over the threshold, zombie-like, and I could smell alcohol on his breath miles off - even with the antiseptic tainted air. Wishing my senses weren't enhanced to pick up so much of his stench, I tried to stay still, my eyes watering as I pushed down the urge to cough. Hagen staggered over to the crates, looking along the line of crates for my outline - or the outline of Subject 1 as the label on my crate read. I heard the sounds of the kids pushing themselves into the corners of their cages, Dr Hagen using their barred walls to pull himself along the wall to my crate. He passed Star, Ratchet, Holden, Kate, little Ari, and Iggy, but stopped just short of me upon catching sight of Wren.

He must've been really drunk if he thought Wren was me - slightly offensive, considering it was him who was put in charge of sorting out my 'attitude', he ought to know what my shivering outline would look like.

Though granted, in the darkness, and without raptor vision, it'd be difficult to see Wren's chestnut wings, flared defensively, their colour definitely not stretching from brown to tan to white like mine. Her lank, straight brown hair fell in front of brown bambi eyes, and I could hear her breathing shakily as Hagen began fumbling for his keys.

He found my key, trying to shove it into Wren's padlocked door, and cursing as he couldn't get it in. Knowing he'd get Erasers to open the cage by force if he couldn't get her door open (and also knowing that they wouldn't be careful about damaging the crate's contents) I kicked out against my door - the bars rattling violently enough to catch his attention. My heart started thrumming uncomfortably as he bent down, clearly realising his mistake and pulling himself over to slip the key into my crate's lock. I was aching, more hungry then I'd been in the last week, and more tired then I'd been in a while after the test this morning, but if it was going to be me or Wren on the receiving end of his psycho plans, I damn sure wasn't going to let it be her.

The lock clicked and I braced myself, trying not to shake, repeating Jeb's words to myself and trying to stay calm - they can't take me, I'm the best, the strongest, the Maximum...

...escape attempt 54 is going to be the one…

Hagen batted the lock out of the bolt hole, and the door fell to hang loosely on its hinges.

Before he could reach down to grab me, I threw myself through the door, tackling him and sending us both crashing into the linoleum tiles. Hagen Däas took most of the blow, his head cracking on the floor as he collapsed in a sluggish mess of groaning limbs, leaving me plenty of time to sock him in the jaw.

He didn't even flinch. Out cold.

I stood up shaking, in shock, barely aware of the dull throb of my throat. I did it. I actually did it.

Giddiness ballooned in my chest as I grabbed Hagen's dropped keys, shaking from exhaustion but managing to limp over to Wren's crate - sliding the key marked 23 into the door and unlocking it. I pulled the door open, almost toppling over as she threw herself at me in a hug, shaking and hanging on tightly. I gave her a squeeze then gently pulled her off, needing to unlock Iggy's crate, and she fell back reluctantly. I found the key marked 2, the padlock clicking free but proving just as difficult as Wren's to pull off with trembling fingers. Once I'd pulled the lock off I pulled open his door, reaching inside and grasping Iggy's hand, tapping the back of it twice with my thumb.

Iggy had bandages around his head and, although his senses were second to none, the white coats had mucked around with his eyes enough to mess up his confidence a little; so the grip on my hand tightened as he pulled himself up, accidentally tugging me over, partly due to enthusiasm and partly due to me being practically dead on my feet after this morning. Luckily I only collided into his chest and he gently pushed me upright again, muttering a shaky,

"Sorry..." I didn't trust my voice with my throat being so raw, so I pulled one of his hands against my mouth to show him as much of a smile I could manage. He nodded, understanding, and Wren took his hand as I moved onto the next crate. Bending down in front of Ari and smiling at him through the bars, my voice horrifically raspy,

"Let's get you out of here." Ari's blue eyes shone out from the bars as I rammed the first key into the lock.

It wouldn't fit - of course it didn't.

Hagen had the avian hybrid's keys with him - and only 3 out of the eight of us in here had wings.

I'd make it fit. I've got to get them all out.

"...Max" Ari whispered, staring gloomily at me, "…they're not gonna work." I didn't look at him, too busy giving up on the third key and moving onto the fourth,

"Don't worry baby brother," I reassured him, "just gotta…" I trailed off, shoved the firth and sixth keys in and ignoring their labels.

Neither of them would turn.

I threw down the keys, staggering over to the tray of spare surgical tools in the corner. Course, I didn't find any lock picks, but a few of them might be able to do something…

"You need to get out of here." Ari protested as I picked out the best tools for the job. Turning around, and almost tripping as I stumbled back to his crate, I just about managed a nervous grin,

"I know" I bent down, painfully clearing my throat, "and I will. We'll all be off as soon as we get these doors open. Then I'll fly you off into the sunset. Just like in that film we watched last week..." I slotted the first metal instrument in, muttering, "just like I promised." It took a few tries to jam both the implements into the lock, but wiggling them around did nothing, "…com'on!" I muttered, a blunt ache blossoming through my legs as Ari poked his fingers through the bars,

"Max, Erasers are gonna be here any minute, they'll probably have already seen you on the cameras!" The ache in my throat twisted and my voice almost gave out as I tried to raise its volume, speaking to Wren, panic leaking into my tone,

"Ari's right," I told her, "they'll be here soon. I need you to take Iggy and get going - he'll need your help to get out." Wren looked slightly horrified, her bottom lip quivering,

"But-"

"I've got to get the others out, I promise, I'll be right behind you." I stood up for a second, stumbling over to her and clutching her shoulders, partly to make sure she was listening, her posture shrinking inwards with nerves, but also partly for support in case my legs gave out from underneath me, "Jeb said to take the first door on your right. At the end of the hallway there's another door - it's an emergency stair case outside. Get out, get up, and get away. Three miles West I'll meet you in the nearest clearing." Wren opened her mouth to protest but I gave her a small kiss on the forehead and pressed my palms against her cheeks firmly,

"Sweetie I need you to help Iggy, he can't get out by himself, and I'd help but I've got to get the others. You can do this, I believe in you." Wren hesitated a second but gave me a watery nod, backing away with difficulty and tapping the back of Iggy's hand twice to signal that they were off. I watched for a second as they broke into a run, Wren leading Iggy, who looked blindly back over his shoulder.

"Holden?" Ari half shouted, "tell her I'm right!" Holden didn't say anything, though that wasn't exactly out of character for him - he barely spoke anyway, and he was probably as terrified as I was as to whether I could unlock all their crates. Nevertheless I wobbled back over to my make-shift lock pick, Kate speaking in an urgent voice as I wriggled the instruments around,

"Max, if you don't go now, you'll never get out - just go and get help or something!" I scowled, knowing she was right but my heart tearing at the thought of leaving any of them here.

The fire alarm went off as Wren opened the exit door, and I flinched so violently I knocked the lock pick loose, both metal implements clattering to the floor. The sprinklers came on and a cold shiver rippled through me. I looked around at them all, searching for some kind of plan. I looked after them, I was the oldest, the leader, the one that took the beatings to keep them safe, they were my responsibility - Jeb had given me the job of looking after them. I couldn't just leave!

...But Wren was waiting for me, and with Iggy in his condition, they couldn't look after themselves...

"MAX GO!" Star snapped anxiously, shouts floating down the corridor. I looked around at them all, one last time, lingering on Ari as I grimaced painfully,

"I'll be back, I promise..."

And before I my legs gave up on me, I broke into a run, my bare feet slapping against the tiles as I ran from the room.

"There!" yelled a white coat, pointing at me from the end of the corridor. He was at least 50 meters away, ordering three Erasers to morph out and gallop towards me like cannon fire in the civil wars. I sprinted through the first door on my right, racing along the new hallway with the sound of snarling on my heels.

I shouldered past the fire exit door, already ajar, and leapt up the stairs, four at a time, occasionally flapping my wings to push me up further, faster.

Trying to ignore the need to breathe and my muscles screaming at me I half flew up countless dizzying flights, the dogs getting closer and closer, catching up with me as I reached the final flight, a fist colliding into my back and sending me crashing into the door. Luckily it was already ajar, but I still landed heavily, rolling across a concrete floor with possibly a broken rib.

Feeling like I'd been put into a washing macheine on a spin cycle I scrambled up, my eyes dizzily adjusting in the newly dark room as I threw my arms up to deflect the claws reaching out for me. I kicked out at the Eraser, though I may as well have patted him on the head for all the good it did - after this morning I was in worse condition then a human.

A punch to the stomach had me stumbling back a few steps, my insides feeling like they'd imploded as I tried and failed to keep my watering eyes open. I heard a whine, hoping it wasn't from me, and as I wrenched my eyes open I found I might yet be in luck. Instead of meeting the sight of another fist, all I saw was the Erasers lying out cold. The entire pack had dropped to the floor, like someone had just hit their power buttons.

One hand clutching my stomach I stood up a little straighter, staring at them all, staring the bar codes on the backs of their necks. How the hell did I manage to swing a pack of out of date dogs?

But before I had any time to question lady luck, my raptor hearing picked up more barking from the stairwell leading back to the school.

My vision now severally blurry I forced myself into a painfully slow run, heading for the stairs set into the far wall. I pushed through the already open door, hearing the sound of more Erasers bursting into the room below, that nails on a chalk-board sound of claws scratching over concrete making me feel sick.

My vision swayed and I shook my head roughly...I can't pass out now...

Almost accidentally turning on hyper-speed I ran faster, racing along the new corridor towards the door at the end, dogs clattering down the corridor behind me.

Freedom was 20ft away, this was it, I could do this.

I shook out my wings, ready, shouldering open the door and jumping into the air, flicking into hyper speed in one painful wingbeat, almost choking as I inhaled my first breath of fresh air. It was like a fish taking to water; the air filtering all the muck out of my lungs, even clearing my vision a little as I rocketed through the cold, not looking back, trying to activate my avian sense of direction to fly West as the wind whipped past me.

But I must've been too tired. And everything hurt. My internal compass was spinning desperately, no clue what it was doing as the sprinkler water from Itex's fire alarm began to freeze my hospital gown to my skin. I slipped out of hyper speed, not longer able to keep it up as my muscles began to spasm with exhaustion, dropping altitude a little too fast for comfort.

My vision started spinning, black dots appearing as I fell a few more feet, and I could almost see what was left of my energy draining into the air around me.

Crap.

I more felt then saw I falling, only managing to cling to consciousness every few seconds, seeing the ever comforting sign of a very sharp roofed suburbia for landing. A wave of sleep pushed up darkly from my chest, tugging my eyes shut as I tried not to fall to my death.

Grunting with effort I threw out my wings, as taut as they'd go, managing only a few broken bones instead of sudden death as I collided with what I assumed was the roof of someone's house. I rolled off the tiles, probably like some lame spy in an action movie, landing (rather un-spy like) with a thump on my side, a muffled shriek escaping my battered throat as I landed on my arm.

I whimpered a little, shifting myself over onto my back, noticing I'd probably broken if not dislocated the arm I'd fallen on.

Oh god, how the hell was I going to get to Iggy and Wren now? I wasn't going to last much longer, and I promised, I'd promised I'd be there. But my eyelids weren't strong enough to stay open and I felt something die in the pit of my chest, tiredness washing over me again, warmly pulling me down.

"NO!"

I wrenched open my eyes, bolting upright, breathless and staring around at reality; my bedroom, bare, the essentials, and lit with 2am daylight. That nightmare was too real, every time, it was like I'd just seen them...just failed them.

I screwed up my eyes, rubbing moisture away with my knuckles, pushed my hair out my eyes, feeling as shaky as if I had just been running away from the Erasers. Thankfully, that was ridiculous. I actually get the right amount of food now, compared with the half-starved person I was back at the school, and I sure as hell hadn't come into contact with any sickos wanting to experiment on me for the last 6 months.

I shivered, cold air blowing in from the window I always kept open. I felt my chest growing tighter, like it was trying to squeeze my heart into a calmer rhythm as I swung my legs over the bed, getting to my feet groggily.

I padded across my room, quietly opening my door to cross the hallway, heading to the bathroom.

I locked the door behind me, opening up the window for comfort's sake (despite the goosebumps rippling down my arms). I turned the tap on at the sink, splashing cold water in my face to try and ground myself back in the real world.

I wasn't there, wasn't back at the school. I was safe. Dr M and Ella had made sure of that. Landing in their garden was more magical then it was lucky - I couldn't have aimed better if I'd tried. Dr M was a veterinarian, married to Roberto Martinez (Rob), Ella's Dad, and they were a goddam superhero family - if ever there was one.

Dr M ran the local vets, but spent a what time she could helping Rob with his work. And, granted, he had a pretty heavy job, being the leader of the Coalition to Stop the Madness. The CSM had been targeting Itex for years, getting practically no where. Then, enter me, stage right, face down in their garden like the angel they were praying for.

Dr M told me I was out for several weeks, almost dead. If they hadn't gotten an IV attached within the hour I probably would've snuffed it - course, I did rip it out as soon as I was conscious, but it's the thought that counts. As it turned out, when I had woken up, it was to find that Dr M had already reset the bones I'd broken, cleaned up any open wounds and set me up in the guest bedroom; because bringing me into a hospital would've been both unnecessary (considering the resources and know-how of Dr M and the CSM) and problematic (as I'd broken several wing bones in the fall, I couldn't fold them into my back as easily, and an angelic John Doe walking around the hospital probably would've freaked a few people out/sent up a red flag for Itex on my whereabouts).

It was lucky I was so weak when I woke up, because it's a lot easier to explain things to me when I can barely lift my head off a pillow. So I understood that I was relatively safe and not near any white coats, without beating the seven bells of hell out of anyone. Because, as it turned out, the Martinez's were quite nice humans. Humans that readily insisted on giving me more then enough food. I think that was the real tie-breaker in my recovery - in fact proper portion sizes actually made me grow a few inches during the week I recovered my muscle strength. Unfortunately, as I recovered, so did the sappy little part of me (the one that made me feel safe when I saw Jeb) and now it had latched onto this family - though not without good reason.

I mean, then didn't really know much other then my name, what with me refusing to talk about myself, but as they filled up the conversation reeling off information about their lives, I realised how much they could actually help.

Rob and his team at the CSM had been working for years to bring out Itex, they even told me everything they knew, stuff even I didn't know. When he told me how they'd been trying to track them, root them out, for the first time in days I spoke up - asking if they'd ever heard of an Itex base called the school. Unfortunately the answer was no, and even worse, they hadn't even found it's head quarters - the Institute for Higher Living. Itex was underground, cleaver, mostly concealed. When I was better, they offered to help find it, and with all the resources they had there (and what with me being fit to 'up and away' if the need arose) I accepted.

First was Iggy and Wren, Rob giving me leadership in the entire operation and putting most of the CSM team on the case. But it was near impossible.

Even if I dreamt about it most nights, I was just as hazy now as my vision had been back then - I had no idea of my direction of flight and how long I'd been up in the air. We needed to know where the school was to find the clearing, and since we had no idea where that was, all we could do was circle outwards from the Martinez's house. I led every recon mission, heading out early to do a quick sweep before the CSM went in, and doing a final sweep when they'd left.

Weeks turned into months of searching, Spring passing by. We didn't find Iggy or Wren, but we did find other Itex bases, and inside the bases was always two things; information on where my flock might be from their databases, and caged kids that needed letting out. There was only ever one or two, the Itex's being very small so they could be hidden easily, but I managed to get them out, all of them so underweight that I could carry most of them on the flight home. It wasn't that easy, I always had to the fight Erasers on guard duty, and as they started increasing security it went from fighting tooth and nail to fighting for my life, but it's not like they were gonna start giving them away, and I wasn't about to leave them there.

With the resources of the CSM, back at the Martinez's house, the kids all got nursed back to health. This wasn't easy either. When I wasn't out on night raids I was usually spending my time comforting the kids, mutant to mutant, trying to reassure them that they were safe, and these people weren't white coats. And you know what, they were damn good kids when they got better - some of them even helped me out with helping the mutants I brought home.

Only, when we went from a household of 3 humans and 1 bird kid, to 3 humans and 15 mutants (most of them needing twice, sometimes three times as many calories as usual) the CSM decided to re-home them in their own safe house. Well, I say house. It was a boat. A really, really, really big boat. Shipping container sized. It was re-fitted, decked out as a large living space, they even had their own bedrooms; and what with all the chick-flicks they watched (thanks to Ella's taste in movies) when they started dreaming of school, the CSM even put classrooms into the ship, teachers from the government coming in to live on the ship. It was as close to real life as kids with tails, and fangs, and scales could wish for.

More and more kids came in, and it was just as well the CSM ship was so big, but out of the 40 or so kids I saved in the six months since I'd left the school, none of them had ever heard of Ari, or Star, or Rachet, or any of my 'school friends'. And we were running out of places to look.

And I loved those kids, I really did, but I was still so worried about my flock. Oh, and now I also had school to worry about.

I refused point blank at first, but Ella had somehow convinced the kids that it was in my best interests to go to high school; and what with all the movies she'd shown them, they were desperate for me to go be the mutant version of Cady Heron from mean girls. I mean, apart from being the only one old enough to go to high school, I was also one of (if not the only) mutant that could blend in with humans. And apparently joining the schooling Rob had set up for the kids on ship wasn't good enough, they wanted to see what real human high school is like. I tried, protested for months, but when September rolled around I'd been subjected to too many bambi eyes and too much encouragent from the Martinez's to 'go and have fun'. And in the end, it wilted my willpower, and with condition of still keeping up my night raids I finally gave in.

Looking for my flock was still my top priority, but I could never fly too much in broad daylight if I wanted to stay under Itex's radar, and I mostly stayed at the CSM ship with the kids when I was sleeping, so I didn't have anything better to do. Though the fear of my hoodie or t-shirt riding up to reveal my wings, maybe a feather dropping out behind me, it was worse then the prospect of having to take on a pack of Erasers.

I shook my head, splashing water in my face and giving myself a once over in the mirror.

It would be fine. My t-shirt and jacket would hide any marks left by the school. The only thing that gave me away as a bit of a weirdo was my hair. I'd refused to go to the hair dressers. I was fairly uncomfortable with Dr M using knifes near me in the kitchen (thanks to my love of scalpels) so a stranger using scissor blades near my head was pushing it. Unfortunately, they'd never bothered to cut our hair at the school, only lopping sections off for test samples, leaving it ridiculously long and lopsided. Dr M had tried her best to cut it normally, leaving Ella to take over when her hair dressing skills failed miserably. It was bad, Ella had managed to give it what she called a feathered look, which she assured me was in fashion, but I didn't care as long as the shorter chunks didn't show through as much.

I sighed heavily, patting my face dry with the towel and leaning on the sink, flinching suddenly as there was a knock on the door,

"Max?" I relaxed slightly, recognising Ella's voice muffled from behind the door, "s'that you in there?" she asked tentatively. I blew out a shaky breath, reaching over to draw back the lock and opening the door. Ella stood in a night dress and slippers, looking at me tiredly from the doorway, a year or so younger then me and a lot prettier, her long dark hair suffering from a severe case of bed head. She grimaced knowingly, "bad dream?" I shrugged, waving a hand carelessly at her and sitting on the edge of the bathtub, trying to smile,

"I can cope with nightmares - school on the other hand..." Ella snorted, sitting down on the bath tub beside me,

"well you'll be fine once I decide what you're wearing." I wapped her gently over the head with the crest of one wing, pulling it loosely around her as a breeze pulled itself through the window and whisked round the room.

"There's no way in hell, I'm going dressed in anything you pick out," she gave me an appalled expression and I frowned out Ella, "you'll choose something tight fitting, and you know I can't wear anything like that that with these." I flared my wings in her face pointedly and she pushed the closest one away, grinning,

"And that's what jackets are for! Come on Max, you'd look even prettier then usual." I rolled my eyes,

"El, I appreciate the effort but I'm going in a hoodie - end of story. And that's if I end up going at all" I scowled at her and she raised her eyebrows,

"What're you talking about, the kids are all psyched about a mutant infiltrating human society" I shrugged at her,

"Yeah, and I'm going to do it for them, but it's not gonna stop me stressing out about it." Ella scowled at me,

"It's not their fault they wanna see you happy." I snorted, rolling my eyes, Ella scowling at me, "Look I know you hate stuff like this - I mean you won't even let me take you to the mall if it's too crowded." I grinned at her,

"That's cause I'm not into clothes shopping." Ella glared at me,

"And you don't want someone to bump into you and figure out whats on your back." I scowled at her, looking at the doorway in disapproval, Ella's voice sliding into a whine, "I'm not trying to be mean Max, but you're so worried about people finding out the whole time you don't enjoy stuff like that. Can't you just let yourself live a little? I mean, you're sixteen and besides the CSM, me, Mum, and Dad, you don't see anyone. You're too busy taking care of everyone to do stuff sixteen year olds usually do, like partying, or avoiding everyone with the internet, or getting a boyfriend."

I felt myself deflate at the last word, closing in a little, Ella giggling at my reaction - probably expecting me to be embarrassed. And I could go with that. I wasn't going to tell her I didn't deserved to go and have fun while Ari and the flock was locked up god knows where. Personally, a boyfriend was the absolute last thing on my list, though it was also probably the first thing on the kids' hopes for my high school career.

"Whatever," I muttered, making to stand up, "it's just making me nervous." Ella flung an arm around my shoulders to stop me, still under the impression that it was the male factor of high school making me nervous, cooing,

"Aw…that's adorable!" I raised my eyebrows at her, "Even Maximum Ride, the great teenage mutant ninja turtle, is scared of boys." I rolled my eyes sarcastically,

"Eheh, yeah no." Ella reached out into a non-existent distance dramatically,

"I can see it now…the Angel that falls for the human…" I whapped her over the head again with one wing to shut her up,

"And that's my cue to leave." She laughed quietly, and I turned around to glare at her, watching as she yawned heavily.

"You should get back to bed," I told her, "the sun's not even up yet." Ella gave me a concerned frown

"And what are you going to do?" I padded over to the door, shrugging and ruffling my wings pointedly,

"Think I'll go and stretch my legs." Ella raised and eyebrow but I held up my hands, "relax, I'll be back in time for this high school adventure of yours."

"Stay safe…" she said, starting off our usual flight departure goodbyes,

"Stay normal…" I replied, giving her a loose salute before leaving the bathroom - heading back to my bedroom to change into more practical flight gear then my pyjamas...

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><p><span>FANG POV<span>

The elevator, rushed downwards, sliding smoothly to a halt as the doors opened sleekly, revealing the antiseptic swept office floors. I walked in, the hairs on the back of my neck standing up like usual, though only because the room was so stereotypically MI6 that it was slightly creepy. The room was near enough tiled in wires and piping, computers and furniture gleaming professionally, a desk set at the back of the room. Behind it, wearing his usual suit, elbows on the table and fingers interlocked, sat Jeb, smiling over at me,

"Morning Fang." I gave him a small nod, taking up my usual briefing position in front of his desk, Jeb handing me something that what looked like an old fashioned pager - and that would be because it was one.

"It'll vibrate and light up if you're needed - replacement from the ear piece as requested." I thanked him, attaching it to my belt, glad I didn't need to have any explanations handy anymore - the last few times they'd called me down to the Institute I'd fallen off my chair, taken off guard by someone suddenly yelling orders in my ear in the middle of maths.

"Anything else?" I asked, Jeb running a hand through his dark blonde hair,

"We have a new mission for you" he titled his head, waving around details, "technically Ari will be on stand-by if you need him..." I nodded, cautious of Jeb's pause,

"Shoot." He grimaced playfully,

"It involves socialising…" I stopped the disgruntled sigh rising up my throat, Jeb smiling at me pityingly (knowing my lack of a social life, and social skills) but carrying on, "there's a new student joining your year. Her name's Maximum Ride. She has vital information on Itex's top secret labs." I raised my eyebrows,

"She's my age? How'd she end up with intel on Itex?" Jeb shrugged,

"I have no idea - to be honest, we were lucky to pick her up, she's been lying low. Point is, now we've found her, we could really use what she's got on Itex. The higher ups think she's been practically at the epicentre of Itex operations, so whatever she knows will be key in bringing the whole corporation down." Jeb paused and I grimaced, speaking a little slowly,

"I don't want to speak out of line," he waved a hand for me to carry on, "Well Ari usually has more luck with girls then I do, and she's not going to give up information like that easily - I don't think I'm the best agent for this mission." Jeb sighed,

"Normally Fang, no offence, but I'd agree; you're a marksman, combat specialist, assassin in the making-" he held up a hand as I frowned, "though I know that's not what you want to do. But, I do understand where you're coming from. Ari can sweet talk his way out of any situation. But this isn't any normal situation. Maximum, she's…" He paused, taking off his glasses and polishing them on the end of his sleeve, "she's been through a lot with Itex. If we send Ari in steamrolling like he usually does she'll be gone with the wind - and if she's avoided Itex this long there's no way we'll be able to find her that easily. We don't want a flirt going in there." Jeb put on his glasses, pushing them up his nose and crossing his arms, "I want her to have a friend. She needs a friend, someone that she can trust - that is how we get the information. Hell, if the head honchos had their way, they'd want you to convince her to come down here and help us out face to face." I frowned at him,

"You seriously think I can do this?" Jeb stood up, smiling disapprovingly at me,

"You should have more faith in yourself," he shook his head, smiling a little, "god knows with a sister like Nudge, if you end up getting lost, I'm sure she can give you a few tips on vocalisation." I smirked a little, watching Jeb as he shoved his hands in his pockets, apparently waiting for my approval. I looked down heavily, sighing,

"...I'll give it a try." Jeb grinned, walking around the desk to clap me affectionately on the shoulder. I rolled my eyes, wishing I had as much confidence about this whole thing as I did, but he still seemed to be a little nervous about it, because he kept his hand on my shoulder till I looked up,

"You need to be careful with her Fang," he let go of my shoulder, shoving his hands in his pockets, "I'm not going to lie, I'm on a orders to get this done as soon as possible, but we have no idea what she's been through - I mean you haven't ever seen one of their labs up and running. It's…" He scowled, staring at his feet like he usually did when he was saying things mentally that he couldn't say out loud.

"What are you not telling me?" I asked, Jeb shaking his head and walking back to his desk chair, grimacing,

"It's not something I can tell you, it really needs to be seen - I'll try to get Ari to clear things up for you" I frowned at him but he sighed, bouncing back into a smile and pulling some paper work towards himself distractedly,

"Now, gaining her trust isn't going to be easy, and that's if she trust anyone at all. She'll be protective, dismissive, and most likely rudely defensive," one side of his mouth quirked as he shuffled some papers, slotting them in a brown file and handing them over to me, "other then herself, the only person she's going to be more defensive about is her adopted sister - Ella Martinez." I opened the folder. On top there was a school ID photo, showing a girl with wavy dull blonde hair, staring stonily at the camera with pretty brown eyes, the caption at the bottom proclaiming 'Maximum Ride'. Underneath her picture, there was another one, this one belonging to Ella,

"She's a freshman" I clarified, recognising her, "one of Nudge's friends." Jeb nodded in recognition,

"I believe Maximum Ride goes by Max - just a heads up." I nodded, flicking back to Max's picture and making a note of her face in case I managed to pass her in the corridors. There was the ding of an alarm and I looked up, Jeb clicking the alarm off and leaning back in his chair, "and that'll be time for you to get going - school in ten minutes. Ari's already above ground." I nodded respectfully and turned on my heel, file in hand, the elevator doors opening automatically as I reached them.

I stepped inside, turning around to see Jeb give me a loose wave as the doors slid shut, and the lift started to glide upwards.

Now out of ear shot of those in authority, I let my head loll back, groaning.

_Sure Jeb. Don__'__t pick agent superman__. It__'__s not like every girl thinks Ari__'__s good looking. Choose the tall,__ skinny__, __geek__ - that one with no social skills, no friends, and no desire to make polite conversation when he could be helping bring down Itex. _

Though I s'pose now making conversation did come under my job description. I bet Ari was pissing himself about all this. Me, talking. For longer then a few minutes at a time. It'd be kinder, and probably more effective, to give a plant the mission to wing its way into Max's good books. I mean, if I'd known I'd be getting missions to make friends when I joined the Institute, I probably could've given them said plant, because they would've be better off.

So far, the only missions I've had have been investigating old Itex facilities, making sure they hadn't moved back in. But nothing really dangerous. I mean the few new ones we'd somehow managed to find, seemed to get the heads up on us coming, so by the time we'd gotten there, Itex had already high-tailed it out of there. I'd been training to help take them down for about six months now, but I'd never had much of a chance to use any of it apart from sneaking around to scope places out in case the cavalry needed to be called in.

Mum got me into it - not that I generally call her that. Anne Walker worked at the Institute for Higher Living, she was pretty high up in the food chain until she had her accident. She'd never wanted to leave, and since she'd gotten me involved in the Institute, she started insisting I call her Anne whenever we talked business (and when Nudge wasn't around). She said it made her feel more in tune with the Institute. And who was I to make her unhappy?

I mean, sure, it was a little weird at first, but I suppose what I did didn't really count as normal. I mean, if you look past the details, it was similar to being on a sports team; I had training after school a few days a week, I had 'games' infiltrating Itex bases, I had a team mate (my partner Ari, Jeb's son), and the entire Institute was on high school grounds (the school having been built on top of it to hide its location from Itex). It wasn't easy but I wasn't doing too badly. Plus, it was cool, I mean, I was still lowest in the food chain, but the Institute was the real 'gadgets, suits, and sunglasses' deal. Clean cut procedures and aims that helped people.

Apparently they'd already had multiple undercover agents shutting down Itex all over the world. I'd met one of them, Dr Gunther Hagen, and he told me how we'd busted all their bases outside the USA. Itex were scrambling on our home turf; which, granted, made them harder to find, but also meant they were ready to crash and burn, running for cover. And that meant something.

I just wish I'd done something like that. I mean, I was helping, but I'd never actually been part of a team to bust one of their places open.

The familiar whooshing feeling in my stomach announced my floor and there was a quiet 'ding' as the doors whirred open, revealing a cupboard door. I twisted the door handle, walking through into the school's boiler room and closing the door behind me - hearing the three-fold lock slide with a satisfying click.

I walked over to my bag, stashed like always in the corner, and knocked the worst of the dust off it; slipping the brown file inside before slinging it over my shoulder, crossing the concrete floor and and walking over to the stairs set into the far wall. Reaching the top I opened the door, slipping out into one of the schools hallways, closed it carefully behind me and turning right to head for my locker.

It was pretty close, right next to the water fountain. And standing by the water fountain, one foot on the cream coloured concrete, leaning against the wall like always was Ari; bleached blonde hair and blue eyes slightly intimidating, as usual, his expression set cleverly. He had the kind of look that made me glad he was my partner not target, or even worse enemy. And that was just from looking at him. Seeing him in combat training was freaking scary - he was more of a machine then a man.

As a person he was cool, a little rough around the edges, but as jocks usually went, he was alright; true, neither of us ever talked about ground, but that was only because we couldn't be seen talking to each other. We were partners, not technically friends, and he was miles ahead of me in the school's food chain anyway. Still, without one of his equally muscled football friends around, and his eyes looking out the window, he chanced a low snarky purr of,

"Get the low down on the mission?" Not looking at Ari (or A-jax as he was known in school) I fiddled the combination into my locker, keeping my voice low,

"Yep. Freaking hilarious." I heard Ari snort,

"Now, I know talking is hard for you Fangy, but can people like you actually flirt?" I rolled my eyes opening my locker and stuffing books into my bag a little aggressively (wishing we were below ground so I could at least try and drop kick him),

"Shut up…and who said anything about flirting? The missions to make friends, not make her my girlfriend" Ari sniggered,

"Girlfriend, nah Fang, it's just a trick you gotta pull with the ladies. Little flirting easies them in - everyone does it. Trust me." I scowled,

"Sure. And how many girls have you gone through pulling stuff like that?" Ari clicked his tongue proudly,

"A couple." I spared a second long glare at him, zipping up my back pack and slinging it over my shoulder, just about reaching for my sketchbook as Ari's tone sharpened slightly, "oh hold up…here she comes….tall, blonde…with that Ella - looks uptight, like she's got something shoved up-"

"I got it." I said, cutting off his language as they came into my peripheral vision - dropping my box of art supplies so I could get a better look without staring like a wierdo.

I kicked my locker shut, recognising the back of Ella's waist length dark hair as I bent down to gather up my pencils. The girl on the receiving end of Ella's 'Nudge inspired one-side-only conversational attack' was obviously Max. Similar to her ID picture, she looked like she was braced for someone around us to pull out a gun, looking at Ella like she was only half listening, casually scanning her surroundings and scraping the messy blonde hair out of her eyes, uneven strands weaving messily around her shoulders.

"Yo, A-jax" said a recognisable voice, and I heard Ari exchange some form of 'cool guy greeting' with one of his friends. Glancing over my shoulder as I stood up I saw Iggy Griffiths, Ari's main man and partner in crime for most sports. Ari told me he only kept him in his pocket for the jokes, but that was just another thing Ari seemed to be trying to tell himself. The guy always said stuff like that; stuff about girls, friends, anything sexist, it's almost like he got his entire personality from watching high-school chick flicks, picking out the toughest guys he saw.

And tough was what Ari liked to be seen as; the fastest, strongest, smartest, the guy that smashes his way into the geeks shoulder as he passes because he's that cool - or kicking his art supplies across the hall, like now for instance. I glared at him, sealing his appointment for an ass kicking later (or at least whatever I could throw at him), gritting my teeth as he held up his hands innocently - Iggy scowling at him and apologising, handing me back a few pencils and punching Ari dissaprovingly.

Ari grinned at me, letting out a small bark of laughter over his shoulder, knowing I couldn't do anything to show him up (or show off my combined martial arts) in the hallway. All I could do was curse internally and stuff my art materials into my bag, sliding my gaze over to check whether Maximum was still there.

My stomach flipped as I realised she was looking at me, my brain taking that millisecond too long to break eye contact (thanks to homework-inspired sleep deprivation). I caught her raising her eyebrows at me before I could turn away.

_Real ninja there,__ Fang. Black-belt__, through and through..._

* * *

><p><strong>Thanks for making it to the end of the chapter :) As promised, please accept this small factoid for your troubles,<strong>

**Only one half of a dolphin's brain sleeps at a time.  
>The other half that's awake signals when the dolphin needs to come up for air to prevent from drowning.<strong>

**Constructive criticism and even emoticons are appreciated if you have time to review :D  
>Have a nice day!<br>Fly on  
>M<strong>


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

Phantoms

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><p><span>MAX POV<span>

Doing sports at Ella's high school was the most infuriating thing I'd done in the last month. I had to get there early, changing in one of the toilet cubicles so there was no feather-fiasco when I took my t-shirt off, knowing full well that, once I was out on the track, I couldn't get anywhere near the usual avian speed limits, so that when everyone else was sprinting, I ended up just having a brisk jog. To make matters worse, I forgot to act like I was tired, my stamina impressing the gym teacher so much he tried to force me into several sports teams. I refused, as politely as possible, which at one point meant walking away so I didn't slip up and mouth off at yet another adult trying to force me into something I didn't want to do.

Either way, by the time I'd gotten changed I settled into a simmering bitch-fit of 'I told you so's' about the difference between movies and real life - most of it along the lines of 'too good to be true'.

Having to change away from everyone else I was running a little late for my next lesson, but I didn't make a real effort to rush off around campus, following my map and heading for music - because according to Dr M, I was a real 'song bird'. Upon reaching the right building I started searching out for the right room number, ignoring the hairs sticking up on the back of my neck for the thousandth time. My gut thinks something's not right, that something looks familiar, but Ella seems to think that I'm (surprise surprise) just 'paranoid'.

I found the room number, double checking on my time table I hadn't been holding the map upside down, and finding that, sadly, I couldn't avoid human contact any longer. I gritted my jaw, the promise I'd made to Dr M about 'trying to have fun' ringing in my ears as I fought the urge to just head outside and do a U and A. The kids at the CSM wanted me to try it out, wanted me to see all the cool 'normal' people, and turning down Dr M was one thing, but disappointing them was another.

So, bracing myself, aiming to at least try and find it boring instead of irritating, I took a deep breath and entered the classroom.

Inside there was only the teacher, sat flicking through some sheet music at an electric keyboard, and I was about to turn around (muttering about apparently choosing the wrong room) when he stood up to greet me, his smile the same as every other intellectual professional had shown me this morning,

"Ah, Max, is it? You must be our newest student?" I nodded,

"Sorry I'm late." He waved away my statement, grinning sheepishly,

I'm sure I can forgive you this once. Unfortunately, I've already split everyone into partners...we're just easing back into the year, doing a little bit of whatever today, now..." he pulled a sheet of paper towards him, running a finger down a list, muttering, "who've we got free…ah, yes," he grinned up at me, "Nick Walker is partnerless as of this moment, you'll find him through the third door on the right (it'll be one of the practice rooms). If you just pop on in there, you two can get making some music - whatever you feel like jamming along to. Sound good?"

No.

But I nodded politely, backing out of the room and dragging my feet along to the third, identical white door on my right.

When I opened it, I saw the boy from earlier, the one who'd come up against (what Ella told me was) the biggest jack-ass you'd ever be lucky enough to meet. He hadn't really made much of a move to defend himself this morning, so I doubt he was a big threat, and I could definitely cope with staying with the underdog. Hell, he'd be better then all the other jerks casting glances at me in the hallway (though Ella tells me they're meant to be flattering).

He was sat at the piano, sheet music on the stand, frowning slightly, but he looked around as I opened the door, a slightly confused twinge twisting an otherwise blank expression. I forced what felt like a grimace on my face,

"The teacher just told me to partnering up with a Nick Walker?" The boy smiled cooly,

"Call me Fang" I dropped my bags just inside the door, clarifying,

"Max." I closed the door behind me, standing awkwardly in the small room, silence filling the void of space between us as we both looked uneasily at each other.

"So..." Fang said, the effort of making conversation shining in his tone, "do you play any instruments?" I shook my head and Fang frowned thoughtfully, glancing back at the piano keys, "...right." He paused for another second, then shrugged, "I s'pose you could sing?" I raised my eyebrows doubtfully, feeling that sarcastic tone claw its way past the politeness I'd wedged into my throat,

"...I don't really sing." Fang rolled his eyes, moving over on the piano stool so I could sit down,

"Course you do. Everyone does." I narrowed my eyes, fairly set on not being ordered around,

"Sorry buddy, but I ain't everyone." He almost smiled at me,

"Okay, well whoever you are, you don't always get the choice of what you do in school." I glared at him lightly,

"I'm not singing. End of story. Can't you just play and pretend I did something." He raised his eyebrows,

"Yeah, if I want to fail. Which I don't - we have to show Mr Palmer we haven't been slacking off, and I'm sorry but it's not considered music if you just sit there looking pretty." Wow, guess I underestimated the niceties of underdogs - even they seem doushey. Fang seemed to realise his mistake however, as he pursed his lips, blinking for a second longer then necessary and looking down at his lap, "...sorry...that was probably the worse introduction I've ever made." he ran a hand through his hair distractedly, sighing, "I- well not that it helps but I'm having a but of a crappy day. I'm not usually-" he trailed off, rubbing the back of his neck, "Can we start over?"

I stared at Fang for a second, not quite sure what to make of him, but he smiled at me sheepishly and my mood evaporated; because he sort of reminded me of the kid I'd rescued three days ago, the one who kept apologising for getting my arm broken as an Eraser got a little nasty, and just like I go soft on them, I decided to let it slide. Giving him the benefit of the doubt I sat down, slowly, as far away from Fang as physically possible, and another moment passed in silence. This was starting to feel a little painful now. Fang glanced from me, to the sheet music, and back again, sounding like he was stabbing out in the dark,

"So, er, can you read music?" I snorted silently. I could read polish, thanks to the school wondering how well I could pick up languages, but music didn't seem to be on the list of the important linguistics to study. "okay, then," Fang drew out, shuffling the pages, "I'll just take you through it." I felt my jaw tighten,

"Can't you sing?" Fang smirked a little, spreading out more funny looking sheets of music,

"Well yeah, but you can't play an instrument, so you've got to do it." He frowned at me, "there's not much else you could do in music - if you don't want to sing why sign up?" My stomach dropped a little,

"I don't know, my...Mum signed me up for most of this stuff- I didn't really know what you do in lessons here." Fang stared at me,

"You didn't do stuff like this in school before?" I dragged out my mental box of fake life-stories,

"No, I've been homeschool my whole life." Fang raised his eyebrows,

"Okay, well I take it you've had time to watch TV then?" I frowned at him,

"Why?" he shrugged,

"Well we can try something familiar if you're not used to singing. Know any musicals?" I shook my head,

"The only TV I've watched is stuff my sister showed me." One side of Fang's mouth twitched,

"If my sister is anything to go by, then you clearly haven't heard anything worth hearing." He got off the stool, walking around to the small bookshelf of music books, pulling one of them out and placing it on the music stand in front of me, "my Mum's favourite musical is Phantom of the Opera...it's got some good piano parts, and I could sing with you if your that nervous."

"I'm not nervous." I said automatically, Fang turning around with a book in his hands and raised eyebrows. I turned back to the piano silently, not really having any other explanation of why I didn't want to sing (apart from the fact it made me uncomfortable).

Fang sat down again, leafing through the pages, emotion leaking through the expressionless mask he'd worn when I first walked in. After flicking once or twice through the book he opened it to the first page, putting it on the stand, "I'm going to just play through the best bits of all of them and you choose the one you like."

I shrugged in agreement - why not, I'm damned already...

* * *

><p>Fang played through the book and I picked out one of the slower songs in the middle, the rest sounded kind of violent from what Fang played and I had no desire to belt anything out - not that I'd need to, Dr M called me song bird for a reason, my vocal range was ridiculous (thanks to a few extra air sacs and the shape of my voice box). Fang took me through my part, pointing out the way I was meant to go up and down in pitch like the notes on the line, and it wasn't too bad, singing so quietly I could pretty much only hear Fang. It wasn't horrific, I mean it wasn't fun, but with Fang singing too it wasn't as bad. It wasn't hard either, my bird brain having accidentally learnt the whole thing pretty much by heart on the second rendition. And after the fifth sing along Fang almost smiled, apparently satisfied,<p>

"Right all the way through, with me playing along the piano bit - think you can handle it?" I looked at him from the corner of my eye. But Fang took my lack of protest for enthusiasm, lightly playing the introduction - his expression mellowing out as he played, swaying his head in time to count us both in to sing.

We sang through the first verse, but as we slipped into the chorus I saw him smiling out of the corner of my eye. That was when I realised that I was the only one singing, Fang simply mouthing along to the lyrics. He grinned at me encouragingly as I suddenly sung a little quieter, the piano dampening down a bit so you could still make out the lyrics. Yet again, as we got to the second verse, singing about those the opera singer had 'left behind', I pushed my flock's faces to the back of my mind, eyes stinging as I held myself together.

Get a grip Maximum, you don't cry, not in front of strangers, and certainly not because of a stupid song.

I swallowed hard, managing to hold the tune together as we passed the half way point. Two thirds of the way through I could no longer stop the water from beading across my bottom eyelids, clouding my vision as my stomach began to curdle warmly. My breath was becoming embarrassingly shaky, and I choked on a couple of the notes, Fang thankfully putting it down to nerves at singing on my own. One stupid little tear ran down my cheek and I caught it casually, passing it off as scratching my nose, my voice becoming nasally as we reached the last few lines.

I ended up whispering the last two lines, which thankfully wasn't too different from how quietly I was meant to be singing; but as Fang played his last chord, and I quickly wiped my eyes again, he finally picked up that something was wrong.

"You alright…?" He asked tentatively, taking his hands off the keys and looking at me with something close to concern. Falling back into autopilot I heard myself laugh,

"Yeah, yeah, you just the…er music. It's good." I tapped the keys, jumping slightly as I pressed down on a high note and it screamed at me.

"Thanks." Fang said, adding as an after thought, "you know, not everyone can sing well - you actually sound pretty good." I nodded, getting to my feet, pushing down the images of Ari so I could deal with them later (away from praying eyes).

"Well…er…thanks." I jolted in surprise as the door opened, the bustle of the hallway filtering into the room. Catching me off guard, I swivelled into fight or flight mode, reaching out to grab the music stand on my left, ready to whack an Eraser; realising before I did anything too stupid, that it was only the teacher, leaning against the door, frame and grinning at us,

"Sounding nice team. It's lunch time, but I think we'll have the same arrangement next week - same partners, only I'll give you all an assignment. Okay?" I saw Fang nod out of the corner of my eye, and I followed suit before grabbing my bags and ducking around the teacher to get out the room - hurrying off to lunch with Ella, pushing down all the nostalgic niggling thoughts that threatened to destroy my internal macho image...

* * *

><p>Ella was waiting for me at my locker, and all the way to lunch all I heard about was Iggy Griffiths. She always talked about him at home, having asked him out several times but being turned down gently. And he may not be interested in Ella, but Ella was definitely interested in him - I mean I saw her looking surreptitiously when he passed in the hallway, only catching the back of his shortly cropped ginger hair, and it made me kind of sad. Both because he was clearly all that was wrong and right in Ella's life, but also because it was another reminder of my flock. The Iggy Ella went after was a lot taller then the Iggy I'd known, and my flock all had long hair thanks to the school; but what hit me hardest was that this Iggy could also apparently see, something my Iggy could barely remember.<p>

Either way, when she'd reached the cafeteria I was glad for the change of subject; Ella cataloging the 'mean girls' cliches and tables, which, although weren't as concrete as they were in the movie, it was all still fairly accurate.

Three sandwiches, fruit, and a bag of donuts later, Ella and I walked towards a table occupied by a pretty mocha skinned girl - who Ella introduced as Nudge. My butt had barely planted itself on the bench when Nudge sprung into action,

"OMG, you're Max?! Ella's told me so much about you!" I had a second to spare Ella a quick glance of confusion (as there wasn't much you could say about me without revealing the greatest secret of all time) but Ella could barely shrug before Nudge was rambling on, "Nudge Walker, professional fangirl, gadget girl, fashion expert-"

"Motor mouth." Ella finished, having muffled Nudge's voice with a hand. Nudge peeled Ella's hand off her mouth, sticking her tongue out at her as Ella rolled her eyes, turning to give me an overly enthusiastic smile,

"…good day so far Max?" Shrugging I unwrapped the first of many sandwiches,

"It was alright. Maths was fine, P.E was boring, and I had to partner up with this guy called Nick- no Fang in Music." My stomach moaned at me and I happily dropped socialising in favour of taking a hearty bite of my sandwich. Ella shook her head in exasperation,

"I think that's Nudge's brother?" Nudge nodded in confirmation and Ella smiled, "he's lovely. I mean he doesn't talk as much as _someone else I know..._" Nudge smiled triumphantly, mouth packed with food. I shrugged, neither agreeing nor disagreeing,

"He seems fine." I turned to Nudge, frowning, "does he always let A-jax push him around like this morning?" Nudge scowled,

"Yeah. And he's a freaking ninja too - he's showed me all these martial art moves he learnt off the internet. He could totally take him, but reeled off what Mum told me" Nudge's voice rose in pitch as she imitated, "_it's not worth disrupting the balence_" She rolled her eyes, "It really pissed me off though. Tess in my English class said that loads of girls thinks he's hot, but no one will ask him out cause they don't want to risk getting on Ajax's bad side. I mean Lisa was brave enough, but then Fang just turned her down - and he clearly liked her, I mean he even went to chess club with her for a while..."

"Iggy sticks up for him though." Ella said, sounding like she was coming off her own train of thought, rather then just joining our conversation. Nudge smirked sadly,

"Yeah, well as cool as your boyfriend is, no one else seems to have the balls to piss that guy off." Ella scowled at Nudge,

"He is not my boyfriend."

"Yet" Nudge countered, grinning and waving her apple around, "I swear he likes you, I mean I can see it, I don't know why he won't date you." Ella frowned, slightly sulky as she changed the subject,

"Yeah, well, Max could take Ajax apart instead" I grinned,

"I could probably figure something out." Ella smiled sadly, her gaze refocusing over my shoulder as she raised her hand in a cutesy wave, her cheeks reddening.

"Oop…talking of" muttered Nudge, "jackass and hotty approaching..."

"Hey Ella," a familiar voice said, getting closer, "you left your coat on the bleachers again." Under normal circumstances I would've spotted Ella's flirting techniques, and probably teased her senseless about it, but as it was I sat frozen, unable to believe. I turned around, looking in the direction of my Iggy's voice, but only seeing Ella's boytoy. He smiled at all of us, stopping at my side and frowning down at me, his expression dropping as I asked,

"Iggy?" He may not have been able to recognise me from how I looked, but my voice was confirmation enough.

"Max?" I stood up, pulling him towards me in a hug, Iggy's arms tightening around my shoulders, muttering into my hair, "oh thank god..."

"I'm sorry," I whispered back, my voice shaking, "I'm so, so sorry…I tried to find you but you were gone and-"

"Max?" Ella asked from behind me. I squeezed Iggy tightly, feeling the feathers beneath his hoodie in confirmation of who he was before drawing back, wiping my eyes as Iggy said,

"Hey Ells, I- sorry, I haven't seen Max in a while." Ella tilted her head confused,

"You two know each other?" I grimaced, looking at her pointedly,

"He's my cousin, you know, the Iggy I told you about?" The look of comprehension dawned on her face as she looked back and forth between us,

"You're _that _Iggy?" Iggy grinned, opening his mouth to say something but someone behind talked over him,

"Not that I don't love a hallmark moment, but what exactly is going on dude?" A-jax stepped into view, similar in height to Iggy and I, bleached blonde hair spiked sharp as his voice, fixing Iggy with a hard expression, and glaring down at me like I'd done something to severally piss him off. Jeeze, Ella wasn't kidding, what an prat.

Iggy threw an arm around my shoulder, smiling,

"Max and I grew up together. My parents dragged me down here from two states over before I could say goodbye - I didn't have any contact details so we haven't heard from each other in, what six months?" I grinned up at Iggy, proud at how well lying slipped off his tongue. Ajax rolled his eyes,

"Sure. Whatever. You deal with all this mushy feelings crap and come find me when you grow some balls again." He backed off, slouching away impressively, and I stared at him, muttering,

"What the hell is his problem?" Iggy smirked,

"Oh he's just putting all this on - he's not that stuck up when you get to know him." He smiled at Ella, asking with that familiar, cheeky grin,

"Well I know why your Mum doesn't let anyone come round your house," he nudged me, "not with this one on the loose." I punched him very lightly in the ribs and he laughed. Now that I looked at him I saw that he'd gone through the same transformation that I had. He was wearing a very loose t-shirt under his jock-jacket, and proper nutrition had given him almost an extra foot in height - so that he was now miles taller then me instead of inches. His hair, like mine, was uneven in places, but cropped short to hide it as best as he could. And his eyes. He was actually looking at me.

"They work." I said, staring back and forth between each blue eye, Iggy grinning,

"Yeah, would you believe it, that last op actually did the trick - I can probably see better then you now." I almost laughed but my inner flock leader's voice was yelling itself hoarse for information,

"Where's Wren? How'd you guys make it?" Iggy's face dropped.

"Wren...she didn't make it out...said she had to distract them so I could get out. I think she was trying to do a you and save the day...But I never saw her again. She fought off the Erasers by herself. Iggy rubbed the heel of his palm into his eye, "I swear I passed out, I can't remember leaving her. But next thing I know, I'm lying in someone's bed, two people standing over me. The Griffiths, they...they took me in. They were ex-Itex employees, they tried to stop what was happening to us but- well Itex told them leave and stay quiet, or they'd 'retire them'." Iggy smiled to himself sadly, "I still can't believe my luck. Hell I don't know how I got there, but they're good people, they even helped me try and find you and Wren." I bit my lip,

"I can't believe my luck either - I crash landed in Ella's back yard. The CSM have been helping me take down Itex." I smiled at him, "Iggy we've been saving kids, getting mutants out, giving them a home." Iggy stared at me and I smiled happily, "God there must be near 50 of them now, all holed up on a ship, safe, we even started a middle school onboard." Iggy gaped at me, inhaling deeply and shaking his head,

"Damn Max, once a superhero always a superhero."

"We're still looking," I said quickly, "for the school I mean. The CSM even found out the name of their biggest base. It's called the Institute for Higher Living. We haven't found them yet, but when we do, we can save the flock."

"I want to help." Iggy said shortly and I nodded understandingly, wiping my sleeve over my eye again as Ella piped up,

"Well why don't you come back and meet Mum and Dad tonight? We could sort things out and show you what we've got on Itex." Iggy grinned,

"That sounds perfect Ells." I smiled, watching as Iggy clapped a hand on Ella's shoulder affectionately.

Finding one of my flock had given me a new surge of enthusiasm. And on top of that Iggy's body language was adorable. Ella might not realise, having never having to hide a pair of wings away, but I had a feeling that dating might be an option Iggy could open up, if only to those in favour of having feathered friends. Maybe school wasn't going to be all that bad...

* * *

><p><strong>Welcome, ladies and gents, to your chapterly dose of a slightly-useless-always-pointless fact :)<strong>

**Non dairy creamer is flammable...yay? I think?**

**Thank you to anyone who reviews - you truly lovely person ^-^ have a virtual cookie on me :P  
>Fly on,<br>M**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3:  
><span>Angels, Aliens, and Itex's Demons<span>

* * *

><p><span>Max POV<span>

Having Iggy around for dinner that night was unbelievable. It just hadn't sunk in yet. He was here, really here, and he was okay. Maybe even better then okay, judging by his and Ella's interactions.

We talked business over dinner, mainly bringing Iggy up to date on what we had on Itex. Rob and Dr M weren't that comfortable with Iggy's account of how he got out of the the school - I mean, I believed him, we believed him, but it didn't make sense. He just wakes up, two loving guardians ready to take him in out of the goodness of their hearts? I mean, Iggy told us that they'd lost their kid to Itex, that it was one of the crib snatchings that the school carried out to collect test subjects; but it was pretty damn lucky for him to just happen across victims of Itex. And that fact that I got so lucky as well - it was almost too good to be true.

And as much as we all wanted to think life was dealing us a nice hand, we could all agree it was a little suspicious, and Ig gave Rob his address so he could do some background checks on them. It was late by the time we'd finished chatting, and I felt floaty as we followed him out into the back yard, Iggy giving Ella and I a hug before taking off, flying home under cover of darkness.

That night, for the first time in god knows how long, I slept soundly. No nightmares, no need for a stress-relief flight in the morning. My internal avian alarm clock woke me up just before the sun, and I lay in bed for an hour before padding downstairs for breakfast.

The rest of the week actually continued in a similarly heavenly fashion.

Music was getting easier and easier, and half the time I found myself almost relaxing with Fang. In fact, after stopping A-jax from throwing him against the lockers one morning, I ended up dragging Fang along to sit with us at lunch. Apparently he usually ate alone anyway; and, as much as he tells me he doesn't care about A-jax, I knew full well he was lying through his teeth - I mean, I'd seen that expression before, I'd practiced it in the mirror till my the mask hid any trace of truth. Anyway, I wasn't about to let A-jax pick on him if he found Fang hiding god knows where having lunch.

I introduced Iggy to the CSM kids, and he came with me every weekend to see them. In fact he near enough lived at the Martinez's now; coming over most nights, mapping out what he could remember with Rob, spending any free time with Ella. They were clearly close before hand, but now his feathery secret was out in the open Iggy didn't have to keep up the guard I saw him wearing at school. When he was in the house, he let his wings hang loosely out of slits in the back of t-shirts, like I usually did, and Ella seemed even more fascinated with his avian attributes then she had been with mine.

And considering how cute they looked together, I even decided to unveil a little bird kid weakness that I used to use on Wren or Iggy (when they were hurt or needed calming down); Iggy getting so damn relaxed that he'd fall asleep in her lap, letting her realigning crooked feathers, stroking through them like you would a cat.

It was freaking adorable. And I, for a while at least, I was freaking happy...

* * *

><p><span>FANG POV<span>

I shut the door of Ari's van quietly and gave him a loose salute of thanks, watching as he stamped on the gas, driving home as recklessly as usual.

Tonight had been more then a little disheartening. It'd been the fifth time we'd caught wind of Itex's newest headquarters. And it'd been the fifth timeI'd gone in to scope the place, only to find everything gone; lab equipment scattered on tables, metal trolleys abandoned, wiring left hanging where computers had been ripped away. Nothing to see, nothing to hear. Just the new carpet smell of an office building.

On the bright side, for the past few weeks, Mission Fallen Angel seemed to be going well, even with my social skills. Unfortunately Ari had also found himself a new favourite hobby. Acting on orders from higher up he started showing me up in front of Max, usual stereotypical bully stuff, apparently so she'd feel sorry for me or jump in and defend me, 'strengthening our bond'. Prat. Trying to show him my appreciation (when we got down to the Institute, away from the high school food chain) didn't make me feel any better either; cause no matter how many times I took a swing at him, he always (just) came out on top of the fight. It was pointless. And getting shoved over (and not being able to do anything about it) got annoying; so much so, I resorted to asking Jeb to override his orders, but he didn't have enough clearance to do it. So the big bosses wanted me beaten up too. Yeah I'm really loving this spy business...

I looked across the grass front lawn, up at the house.

There was a light on in Anne's room, but for once her shadow wasn't staining the curtains drawn over the window. She usually waited up for a brief on how my mission went, but after the whole thing had been such a fuck up, I really wasn't in the mood to do anything but catch up on some sleep. It was nice that she wanted to help me out with my work at the Institute, but I was getting a little tired of telling her we missed our target - it was like brining home a straight F's report card, when your Mum was head of education for the state.

Sticking to the shadows I crept across the lawn, skirting around the house, and dodging the water from the sprinkler. Thankful I was still wearing my recon mission gear, I settled my footing on the the window below my room.

Foot on the bottom window still I pushed off the ground, grabbing my window ledge and pulling myself up. Hanging on one handed, I dug around in my pocket for my tool kit, pulling out a flat object and wiggling it under the crack between the window and sill. The latch clicked free and I pushed it up and open, clambering up and crawling through the small gap, careful to land silently on my thin bedroom carpet. Someone switched my desk lamp on and I held back a groan as Anne sat, cross legged, facing me from my desk chair,

"Fang..." she started accusatively, "why are you sneaking into your room?" I trudged over to my night stand,

"I thought we'd talked about this - I'll wake up Nudge if I just stroll in through the front door." I kicked off my shoes, dropping my gloves on top of them as Anne took on a patronising tone,

"Fang...you and I both know that if you woke Nudge up (because you weren't sneaking around effectively) then you'd be in the wrong profession. And you know as well as I do, your greatest skill is stealth" I gritted my teeth, frustration bubbling in my chest after failing another mission,

"Well you're the one who got me in this spy business" I snapped, "it's not my fault if I'm not good enough at my goddamn job…"

Though I couldn't see Anne I knew her face had just stiffened, and a pang of guilt dipped into my stomach. It wasn't like I'd always hated the Institute. I mean I've never met anyone other then Ari in my program, all the rest are adults, but in a way I'm still lucky - I mean how many people can say they save the world for a hobby? Sure they pushed me pretty hard, too hard a lot of the time, but that was only to make sure I wasn't caught by Itex. But lately it was starting to feel like we'd never catch Itex.

"I didn't mean be aggressive." Anne said flatly, "It just feels like your hiding from me. You've always told me about all your missions and training, but now I never hear anything." I grimaced. Yeah, I tell you cause you always ask.

"It just hasn't been going well…" I said shortly, but Anne seemed to want me to elaborate. Rubbing one eye to stave off a yawn I gritted my jaw, "it's the fifth time we've missed Itex. There must be a mole in the institute, there's no other explanation for it; they're always gone when ever I get there, and it always looks like we've only missed them by minutes. I've never gotten anything solid on them, let alone stopped them, and if we don't manage it somehow, everyone, especially Max, will always be in danger."

"Since when was Max such a concern?" I shrugged, sinking down my my bed covers, back to Anne,

"Jeb told me she's been through a lot with Itex. I don't know exactly what that means, but there's just...there's these moments when I can see she accidentally drops her guard, laughing or something, and then she realises she's being open, and freezes, like she expects me to suddenly turn on her. That's not...it's not natural...it's Itex..." I ran a hand through my hair slowly, "She's a good person. I don't know what Itex did to her, but as long as it's still up and running there'll always be a danger they could try and, I don't know, silence her? Everyone else doesn't have a clue there in danger, but if Itex doesn't go down Max is never going to feel safe. And that's not right." I heard Anne shifting in her seat,

"Well then, you should probably know...I've been in contact with some old co-workers. You're right, what Itex did to Max, they'll hunt her for it for her whole life unless they're finished." I looked around at her, confused,

"I thought our info on Itex didn't include what Max had gone through - isn't that the point of this mission? To find out what she's seen?" Anne shook her head,

"Yes. But this isn't about details of what she's gone through. This is about how they knew she'd spent time in Itex."

"...How?" Anne frowned, thinking over her words a moment and nodding to herself a little before speaking,

"Call Ari, he'll show you - tell him to be outside just before dawn...

* * *

><p>Anne left my room without much more of a fuss after that, and I managed to get a few hours sleep before Ari pulled up. The black passenger door was unlocked when I pulled on the handle, and I jumped in, having barely pulled the door shut before getting socked in the arm - so hard it went a little numb. I turned around, swinging a fist at Ari,<p>

"The hell was that for?!" Ari caught my punch, missing the jab I sent with my numb arm at his ribs and releasing my fist, growling,

"It's a warning Black bird. This 'duty calls' shit, straight after a mission, at this time in the morning - it's a one off. Do it again, and we're going to need to have a little talk over a proper knuckle sandwich." I rolled my eyes, muttering,

"neanderthal," as Ari stamped on the gas. The van back-peddled a little in protest, leaping suddenly forwards, lurching around the corner at the end of the road, the van scurrying down a road heading for the outskirts of town.

"Where are we going exactly?" I asked.

"Confidential." I stared at him, narrowing my eyes at his grin,

"This is part of my mission." Ari chuckled,

"Well you shouldn't have called so early." I gritted my teeth, biting back any retaliation. Last time I argued with him, I'd won, but he'd almost crashed the van in frustration.

So I settled for grinning as he stalled, watching as he rammed the steering wheel, cursing at both me and the dashboard, fiddling with the ignition and furiously reigniting the engine...

* * *

><p>After a long ass ride, filled with the heavy breathing of silent temper tantrums (from one sleep deprived Ari), we arrived at the edge of a forest.<p>

We got out, Ari leading me deep into the trees, till they drew too thick to see any stars overhead. We must've been hiking a few miles before we reached the edge of a cliff; a sharp rock face, jutting out from the trees, forest stretching left, right, and behind us, stopping only at the cliff edge, and continuing 50 ft below us, out onto the horizon.

Ari stopped, pulling some things out of his jacket and chucking them at me roughly. I pocketed the pair of binoculars but held up the belt cluelessly,

"What's this?" He rolled his eyes tugging his inside the belt loops of his pants,

"Dad lent it to me. It's an invisibility booster. Some chameleon tech or something, helps you blend in - just in case Max looks your way. Press the button in the middle and you got three seconds of invisibility. Takes 3 seconds to recharge. Just stay still, cause it won't work if you're moving." I tugged the belt on, asking hopelessly,

"What do you mean 'if Max looks my way'?" Ari smirked and I scowled at him, retorting, "what? I know she didn't follow us, and if she's not climbing up the cliff edge over there then what are we doing here?" Ari snorted,

"Just watch as wait - you'll see." he pulled out his binoculars and directed them at the horizon.

It was just about light now, the sky an inky light blue, night receding like the tide, and small animals and insects stirring in the cold morning air. Ari ducked behind a tree and I followed suit a few feet away, getting out my binoculars, and directing them (like his) at the horizon.

Having no idea was I was meant to be seeing, I scoured the skyline, but other then clouds and trees, the only thing I could see was a small bird. I looked at Ari, confused, but he was busy staring at something I apparently couldn't see - uptight, on target, watching like a hawk.

I looked back into my binoculars again. The bird was much larger now, flying towards us. I span the dial to increase the focus slightly, zooming in on it. It was pretty damn big. The feathers on its head were being battered by the wind, blowing oddly up behind its head, a little like a halo. It zoomed closer and closer and closer, and as its face came into focus I dropped my binoculars.

Max.

Max was flying towards us.

Flying with actual wings.

And now the name of the mission made a little bit of sense...

I stared, open mouthed at Ari, but he was too focused on staring at Max (binoculars pocketed now that she was closer). I looked back at the skyline, realising Max was barely 50ft away, and drawing sharply back behind the tree, into cover. I heard her land, smoothly, running a few quick steps before skidding purposefully to a halt.

I peeked around the corner carefully, watching as Max sat down on the edge of the cliff. She had her back too us, feet hanging over the edge, shaking out the 15ft of feathers like someone shaking out their legs after a long run. Though the sun's light wasn't visible yet, you could still see the colour of her feathers; from white, to tan, and from golden brown to chocolate, darkening the closer they got to her back. She wore what looked like combat gear, slits cut in the back to allow her wings through, leaning back on her hands tiredly and humming - something similar to that first song, the one I'd taught her in music at school.

She lent forwards a little, bringing one of her wings around to inspect it, the humming becoming a little disconnected as she straightened out a few feathers.

So this was what she had on Itex. She was literally a result of Itex. No wonder this mission was so important. She'd have information on how to bring them down if she'd been on the inside.

I'd heard a little about the experiments carried on in Itex, mainly to do with Erasers. But was this the real extent of what they did to people, why all those children went missing...? And if Max was one of those children...how long had she been in there for? What would she have gone through to be sitting there?

Max pulled her legs up to her chest, a cold draft of air sweeping over the cliff, blowing through her wings cooly as she spread them out to catch it, the first of the sun pulling itself up into view on the horizon. The humming suddenly died in her throat and her voice cracked, her head falling forwards onto her knees. And, straining my ears, I almost thought I heard her start to cry. Her wings came around her, like she was trying to hug herself, and the voice anguished whisper I heard was hoarse and watery,

"Ari, Star, Ratchet…oh god, where the hell are you all?!" I glanced at Ari curiously, wondering if he knew what she was on about. He shrugged at me, looking slightly less tense then I felt at the sight of Max crying on the side of a cliff. I turned back to her, my heart sinking a little.

Max sniffed defiantly, scrubbing her face with her palm and muttering something to herself, clenching her hands into fists as she stood up, clearly trying to shake herself out of it. In case she turned around I pulled myself completely behind the tree. But the thoughts racing around my head had misted my concentration, and the I fell back against the tree trunk too hastily, making the leaves on the tree rustle.

I froze, cursing internally, hearing Max turn around on the spot.

She seemed to hesitate a second, but then I heard footsteps slowly pacing in my direction, obviously to investigate. My finger crept around to the invisibility belt buckle and just before she walked into view I pressed it.

...1 second...

I stood stock still, not daring to blink or breathe, watching her out of the corner of my eye as she scanned left and right.

...2 seconds...

Ari had also activated his belt, so her 360 area swipe revealed nothing. But looking down, she did manage to find the binoculars I'd dropped.

...3 seconds...

She picked them up, her back to Ari, oblivious to his reappearance, and I braced myself to tell her everything as she spotted me.

But nothing happened.

I was still invisible. Three seconds was definitely up, but the tech must've been glitching, because as she looked around for the binocular's owner, staring straight through my chest for several seconds, I stayed invisible. Still not daring to blink or breathe, I watched her drop them, apparently convinced they'd been dropped by a hiker, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Ari reactivate his belt just as she turned away. Still not daring to move from my spot I heard her walking away, risking visibility from behind the tree trunk and blinking a few times, trying to breathe as silently as possible. From what I could tell, she stopped at the cliff edge, muttering to herself sternly,

"Get a grip on yourself Maximum, you don't cry..." There was the scraping of boots leaping from the ground and then the whooshing sound of wings taking to the air.

Keeping a low profile, I risked breaking cover again, peeking around the trunk to catch sight of the massive wings carrying her higher into the sky, beating strongly against the air as she soared away from us - flying into the light of the sun, so I couldn't really see her without being blinded by the morning light.

I turned away, sliding slowly down the tree trunk and slumping at its base, puffing out my cheeks in disbelief.

"Bit of a close one there." Ari said quietly, clearly indicating the binoculars incident.

"What the hell's going on?" I muttered.

"No idea. Jeb told me that the belts only give you 3 seconds. Don't know how you got longer. I mean I only got three seconds and I didn't even blink or -" I cut across him,

"I was talking about Max." Pushing myself to my feet swiftly I stared at him coldly, "why was I not told this before? It looks pretty key to my mission" Ari shrugged,

"I don't think Dad knew about it till just before they assigned you the mission."

"Why didn't he tell me then?" Ari shrugged,

"Maybe he thought he didn't need to. I mean she's not got any record - which is, y'know, impossible. Maybe he thought that was enough to go on, and knowing this would make you act differently - I mean you're not a socialite, facing someone off of the X-men isn't going to help your confidence." I chewed the inside of my cheek frowning, unconvinced but willing to ask Jeb in person.

"How do we know she's definitely from Itex…?" Ari gave me a look that told me he wasn't following. "I mean, the Director clearly has a lot of money to play around with. I know the Institute isn't part of the government, but you still hear about billionaires experimenting..." Ari snorted,

"Seriously Fang? The Institute has nerds checking up on her, and even though she fits the background with those missing kids, you're worrying about alien conspiracies?" I glared at him,

"That's not what I mean and you know it." I ran a hand through my hair, snatching up the binoculars at my feet and fiddling with them distractedly, "I'm just wondering, after all those failed missions...maybe the higher ups aren't tell me something, aren't letting Jeb tell me something."

"Fang." Ari said flatly, "Shut up." He rolled his eyes at my expression and gave me a very level look, "if there was something you really needed to know, Dad would probably break protocol - you know him as well as I do. And screw those missions, Itex hasn't been able to stay under the radar this long thanks to luck - hell even the government don't know they exist. They're cleaver, hell wouldn't surprise me if there was a mole in the Institute working for them." I nodded mutely and Ari pocketed his binoculars, "look, we've may've fucked up those missions, but Max might be the key we need to take 'em by surprise. You're mission is probably the most important thing they've ever handed out and you honestly think they're not telling you something?" I stared at him,

"But that's just my point. If this is the most important mission they've ever dolled out, why doesn't my clearance get me any further then Jeb's office? Hell I struggle getting the lowest clearance files. Don't you think that's wierd for such a big mission?" Ari shrugged,

"Everyone has secrets Fang - the Institute, my Biology teacher, The White House. Sometimes, I think you've just gotta have faith in the system." I scowled at him, unconvinced, Ari rolling his eyes, "come on man, stop being so paranoid."

He started swaggering back to the van, apparently completely disregarding everything I'd just said in favour of a good nights sleep. Wow, such trust in his partner.

A part of me wanted to just grow wings like Max, fly away from him to make more of a point; but home was too far to walk and I'd been up all night already. So when Ari yelled,

"You coming or what?!" I pushed myself forwards into a grumpy walk, following in his footsteps...

* * *

><p><strong>It is my greatest pride, and deepest pleasure to present you with your chapterly dose of a slightly-pointless-totally-random fact,<strong>

**A group of toads is called a knot  
>Wow, a fact that's not totally useless, unless you don't come across packs of witches and wizards with their pets<br>*****stares accusatively at the muggles***

**Thank you for reading you beautifully constructed organism *tips bowler hat*  
>Fly on,<br>M**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4:  
><span>Mission Impossible<span>  
><span>(take 394)<span>

* * *

><p><span>Fang POV<span>

The ride back home was quiet, Ari dropping me off in the early hours of the morning, and being too tired to climb back in through the window I chanced the front door. The house was quiet, everyone sleeping as I crept upstairs in the dark, slipping silently inside my room and flopping down on my bed - not even bothering to get undressed. I ended up sleeping through the most of the day, getting up only to eat, and was only woken up in the evening by a call from Jeb. They'd got another location on Itex's new HQ; and if we moved fast, hopefully before information got around the Institute, we might be able to avoid another hit and run like the last mission. I decided not to mention my doubts in the Institute, at least not until I could ask him face to face, so agreed to get ready - after all, it wasn't like we were gonna get 6th time lucky.

With a half hour to go before Ari arrived, I forced myself into the shower, dragging on my back recon kit, and the invisibility belt he'd given me this morning. A few minutes before he was due to arrive I climbed back out my window; because, as much as Anne liked me sneaking out the front, Nudge's window was right above the front door, and the little daylight left meant she'd be able to see me walking off into the darkness.

The black van pulled up, and I got in cautiously, ready to deflect anymore punches, but all Ari threw my way was a thick brown file - filled with debrief info and a blueprint of the building. Apparently it was using the cover of a psych lab, where (supposedly) deceased prisoners were taken apart, to find out what made them so sick in the head. It was creepy stuff, and the setting of it all made me feel uneasy; being a mile or so outside town, and mostly hidden in the forest, it was pretty much a perfect horror movie set. I felt half pressed to keep on the look out for Chucky as well as any Itex workers.

Ari dropped me off at the edge of the forest, leaving a half mile hike till to reach the barbed wire ringing the outskirts. With a leap in my chest I saw that they has guard patrols out - something I'd never encountered before in any of my other missions. Maybe tonight we might actually get something?

With the blueprint memorised I skirted around the tree line, heading towards the East end of the building - avoiding the very handsome, black suit and tie bullies, walking around aggressively, guns held at the ready. The back entrance didn't have any static guards, so using wire cutters on the metal ring fence went unnoticed. I slipped through as silently as possible, rushing over to the emergency exit, counting down in my head till the next guard patrol would make it around my side of the building. I held Jeb's gadget against the big lock beside the door, disengaging the alarm system and unlocking it.

I pulled it open to a crack, only briefly to check if the coast was clear inside. It was empty. A white corridor, lined with identical white doors.

I slipped through, closing the door gently behind me and mentally checking the blueprint; okay, second floor, sixth door on the left. I needed to close down all exits, set the alarm off so Ari and his backup could catch all Itex workers (hopefully before they wiped any data or legged it).

I headed off, silently speeding down the corridors towards the stair well, past many white doors set and translucent windows, all dark with the absence of workers beyond. The stairwell was empty too; apparently only security worked this late, and having come up against none of them so far I raced up the flights unperturbed.

Getting to the second floor I slipped into another empty corridor, knowing the door I needed was right at the end. But the fourth door down the hallway was ajar, artificial light spilling through the crack of the door. Lowering my stance a little I crept towards it, pulling out my small (silenced) tranquilliser gun - as the Institute only thought I was big enough to practice with real guns, but not be provided with one on a mission.

I peered through the crack of the door, straining my ears for sounds of life in the room. But all I could hear was the humming of the computer. Raising my tranq gun to chest height, I nudged the door open slowly, slipping into the empty room, seeing no one. The computer was logged into an account, so someone was obviously here, and someone with one of the highest levels of authority (according to the tab at the bottom of the screen).

I glanced at the door, wondering how soon the user would be back. After all the screen hadn't gone to sleep so the worker couldn't have left all that long ago.

Not that it mattered, my mission was to find the control room two doors down, set off the building's alarm. That was my orders.

But what if I could find out more about my mission? More then the Institute were telling me? More about Itex, about Max? I knew Jeb wouldn't hide something from me on purpose...

But what if he was in danger too...there couldn't be any harm in…yeah.

Feeling a little like I'd just become a rogue agent, I walked over to the monitor; grabbing the mouse and opening up the Itex database, searching for anything on Max. Just as I found a file labeled 'EXPERIMENT 1- MAXIMUM - AVIAN HUMAN HYBRID' there was the sound of a door closing in the hallway, and footsteps quietly rushing down the corridor outside.

My heart leapt into my mouth, closing the database window quickly and zipping around the other side of the desk, dodging behind a counter and crouching out of sight as the door opened. I heard it close, then hurried footsteps, someone leaning over the computer, clicking and typing. Carefully, and very slowly, I raised my tranq gun, peering around the corner of the desk at the figure. But as I laid eyes on her I stood up straight, pocketing the gun, asking quietly,

"Max?" Almost faster then I could track Max vaulted over the desk, colliding with me and grabbing a fist full of my hair, probably to try and knock me out. But my instincts kicked in and I pulled out of her grip, leaping back a step and holding up my hands in surrender, whisper shouting, "Max I'm not going to hurt you, it's me!" But she didn't seem to hear me.

I ducked the right hook she sent towards my chin, throwing myself out of the way of the kick that followed, resorting to getting down on my knees to show I wasn't a threat, raising my voice clearly,

"I'm not going to fight you, please, just calm down!"

"Mavrik," a voice called from outside. My stomach dropped, realising too late I'd spoken way louder then spy protocol advised. Great. Itex employee. Now we're in trouble.

Or rather I was in big trouble; Max, seemed more on the ball then I was, as she'd turned tail and run before I could come up with any split-second strategy. I ran after her, following as she slipped out the room, the Itex goon yelling,

"Hey! Who's there?!" The both of us were running down the corridor now, through the patches of blue moonlight that filtered in through the translucent chicken wire windows, but looking over my shoulder I saw him stood at the far end of the corridor. I turned back around, making sure to keep on Max's tail as the Itex employee punched an alarm.

Well, there goes my spy career.

We rounded a corner as the sirens started to blare, the sound of doors and windows locking down echoing along the empty corridors, the Itex employee having done my job for me in locking the building down. I sped up, Max streaking a little way ahead of me, faster then I'd imagined - forcing me to use my usually unnecessary super speed (gained through training from the Institute). In the next corridor I managed to catch up to her, yelling over the sirens,

"I know a way out, follow me!" Max gave me a brief shifty look, yelling back,

"I can handle myself!" But in unison we both skidded to a holt. Three men in black suits appeared at the far end of the corridor, and running right at us, the middle one barking,

"Remember - experiment one stays alive!" In sync the both of us changed direction, backtracking the way we'd just come, skidding to a stop after several paces as two more men in black rounded our end of the corridor. Max threw herself at the window, kicking out at it when it wouldn't budge. But all that happened was a painful rebound. I knew better the to try and kick open an escape route too - the debrief mentioning that they had bullet proof windows.

Flight was clearly out. Now it was time to fight.

I looked back at Max, unsure what was going to happen but promising, "I've got your back." Max gave me a confused expression, turning around and falling back into what looked like a battle stance, facing the three Erasers (still in human form). I took the two closest, thinking I could back her up easier with two taken down already.

I'd never fought an Eraser before. Jeb's file told me that they were strong, smelly, attractive in disguise, but more dangerous then most. Though the words in that file didn't use intense enough adjectives to describe just how difficult they were to fight.

I took two steps toward the two men running at us, jumping forwards into a flying roundhouse kick, the largest one deflecting it like he was swatting away a fly.

Landing securely I barely dodged his punch, trying to hit a pressure point with a counter kick while I got out my tranq gun. It would've worked if there was one instead of two of them.

As it happened, I managed to knock idiot uno to the ground, but the other Eraser yanked my arms behind my back, just short of dislocating them. I winced, stamping down on his foot, but the grip of my arms remained concrete; and even with the heel I swung up into his groin, I only got a second of looseness in his hold. Thankfully a second was all I needed.

I pulled out of his grip, reaching for my gun and shooting at point blank range, catching him in the face. He yelped and I got a square punch to his face before idiot uno (still on the floor) grabbed my legs, flinging me hard into the wall. I yelled in surprise, colliding with the concrete face first and feeling a warm gush of blood leak from my nostrils like an old tap.

I picked myself up, groggily, head spinning, turning back to the fight and spotting my gun, half way between me and the Eraser - now standing and looking a little pissed. There was no way in hell I was going to beat him with brute strength. Shooting was all I had left.

I pounced on the gun, scooping it up as the Eraser grabbed me, lifting me up by the lapels of my shirt and shoving me against the wall. My head collided with the white concrete again, my vision going slightly foggy as red liquid dripped down my chin, splattering on the floor as I pushed the tranq gun against his ribs, shooting twice.

He socked me once in the stomach, batting the gun out of my hands but dropping me as the anaesthetic kicked in. I lent against the wall, watching him collapse, feeling sick enough to have sunstroke, turning as I heard Max cry out.

It took a lot more then I'd like to admit to get a grip on myself, relying on adrenaline as I staggered over to my gun, pushing down the waves of nausea. With both my Erasers taken out I took aim at one of Max's three dogs. I hit one in the side of the head, missing my other two shots, and as Max was forced into a full nelson I resorted to yelling out,

"OY!" The Eraser with his fist raise stopped, distracted like he'd just seen a squirrel, his buddy that I'd shot in the head loosing consciousness. Max clearly wasn't going anywhere, wriggling in the Erasers grip while his buddy ran at me, getting shot twice in the stomach before he could do much damage. In fact, by the time he'd gotten to me, the most he could do was fall on me - which was kind of effective at flattening all the air out my lungs.

I crawled out from underneath him, breathing heavily as I got to my feet, reloading, looking up just in time to see Max's Eraser inches from me. I didn't have time to even take aim before his huge hands grabbed me, holding my ribs like I was a football, claws slicing shallowly into my sides as he whisked me off my feet, flinging me through the air back in Max's direction.

Thankfully, as much as I hated Ari for being so much stronger then me, our sparring practise meant I was pretty used to being chucked around; and, although dizzy, I still managed to spin in the air, landing unsteadily on my feet, watching as Max swung into action; landing a good roundhouse before flooring him, knocking the Eraser out with a kick to the head. She wiped a bit of blood off her top lip, breathing heavily, looking up as I cleared my throat (my voice embarrassingly slurred thanks to my bloody nose),

"Come on, I know a way out." She still didn't look convinced and I swayed unsteadily on the spot, leaning on the wall for support, "Look, I've been over the blue prints of this place, we can access the vents three corridors over, avoid any more Erasers - we'll be out in five minutes." Max glared at me, accusatively,

"How would you know they were Erasers?"

"Can't we talk about this later? I don't feel up to fighting off another pack of these things." Max scowled, considering me for a moment, but at the sound of distant howling she muttered,

"Fine. Lead the way."

I nodded, taking a deep breath and forcing myself upright, trying to maintain something like a wobbly jog. We followed a few corridors, luckily clean of people and Erasers, Max keeping look out when I knelt down outside the door of the maintenance room, picking the lock - Jeb's device handling the electrical security while I picked the manual. The lock clicked and we slipped inside, closing the door as the sounds of a fresh pack of Erasers, arguing over their fallen hounds, echoed faintly down the corridor.

Spotting a crow bar on one of the shelves I grabbed it, heading over to the large vent and ramming the straight end into the small gap between the metal and the wall. Half a minute and three sore fingers later, the mangled plate fell to the ground; and I dropped the crowbar, bending down and crawling through, checking a few metres in to see that Max was (thankfully) following. We made a right, two lefts, and another right before anything went drastically wrong - drastic being the key word.

We'd crawled over numerous vents in the floor, the ones that carried air to the rooms below us, and I passed over all of them without a problem; but when Max crawled over the third one it suddenly came loose. And with a painful clang she fell through.

I backtracked, crawling carefully over the gaping hole in the floor and looking down to see Max pushing herself back up, wincing.

"You okay?" I whispered, Max straightened up more so, looking around the room and suddenly freezing.

"Fang," she said in a low tone, "get me out." Not having any equipment that would help I carefully dropped down, landing in a crouch beside her. She stood up staring as I crouched slightly, ready to boost her up into the vent again.

"What are you doing?!" she said hoarsely, "You won't be able to get out!"

"You need to get out more then I do!" I snapped. Max gave me a half-confused, half-pissed-off look, but the entire argument fell cold as there was a hissing sound from above us; and pink gas began to float down through the vent.

Well we're not going back the way we've come.

I looked around for other options, struck dumb for a second as I realised that we hadn't just fallen into a room - we'd fallen into a freaking jail cell. And it was nothing like the ones you see in old western movies; there was no bed, no toilet, and no evidence of anyone having been it's previous occupant, only squeaky clean floors and walls. What kind of research did they do here?!

I thought the file had said it was for studying deceased psychos?!

Max gave the door a strong, but the heavy electronic box kept it locked tight. I ushered her back, trying Jeb's device to hack the lock; but it was like the gadget didn't want to recognise that the lock was there. I coughed a little, feeling dizzier as Max kicked the door again, stumbling back with the rebound. Thankfully my brain seemed able to give me one last resort plan and I fumbled for the heavy dog tag around my neck. Jeb had originally given me the ¼ inch thick tag when I'd complained about not having an ID badge - seeing that everyone else at the institute had them. The Higher ups insisted I didn't need one, after all, I hardly did anything but train at the Institute; but Jeb had made one for me all the same, one that I could even wear undercover, using the excuse of issuing equipment. And the little gadget inside the dog tag was incredibly useful for heat of the moment situations (specifically those of the deadly variety).

I bent down in front of the lock, getting Max to back off as I slid the top face of the dog tag forwards, pressing the tiny button on the back. The laser hissed as it hit the metal and I closed my eyes, squinting every now and again to check I was actually cutting through the lock. The pink cloud filling the room was starting to make me feel dizzy, and the acrid smell of burning plastic mixing with it's sickly sweet smell didn't help, but in a few seconds I'd gotten the door open. I stood up, grabbing Max's arm and pulling her out of the cell; not that she needed any encouragement, speeding up to run ahead of me, and kicking the door of the room off its hinges, dragging me out into the corridor.

My eyes were watering as we both swayed a little on the spot, Max steadying me as I almost fell over - like she was a lot more used to being gassed then I was.

"Which," she coughed, "way?" Max pulled me upright, an arm around my back for support, and thankfully I recognised where we were - just a few corridors over from the door I'd used to get inside Itex. With me steering, and Max half-dragging me down the corridor, we lumbered off. I could've probably walked without much help, but it wouldn't have been that fast what with me seeing double, no triple, nope double again.

The emergency exit door was ajar when we got to it, and we hung back a little, scoping out where the Erasers were. But the entire grounds looked empty. It seemed that all those hanging around outside had been ordered inside, either that or Ari and the Institute had been successful in their attack. Whichever it was, there was no sign of them as Max dragged me outside; though by now it was more because I wasn't going fast enough for her liking, rather then the fact that I couldn't see straight.

We squeezed through the opening I'd cut in the fence, setting off into the woods at a run, Max not stopping for what felt like miles.

When we finally slowed down again I was breathless but thankfully not dying, though that was thanks to the Institute, they'd tracked my stamina till it was off the charts. But as we carried on walking through the trees, adrenaline starting to fail me, Max barely looked as breathless as you would be after a brisk walk - in fact she almost looked restless.

"Max?" I asked, catching my breath as she walked on a little ahead, apparently ignoring me. "Max come on, talk to me for a second?" She stopped dead, turning around and glaring at me - her expression hard enough to squashed fruit at a range of 20ft. I pushed her attitude aside for a second, reaching out reassuringly,

"Are you o-" she flinched as my hand touched her shoulder and I stared at her, finishing awkwardly, "kay?" She barely even nodded, taking a step back from me,

"What were you doing in there?" I rubbed my neck nervously, looking down at my feet,

"Er…trying to infiltrate an Itex facility. What were you- oof" I was cut off as Max punched me in the stomach, twisting me around and pushing me to the ground, pinning me to the forest floor.

"Who the hell are you" she growled, "How do you know about Itex?!" Feeling really damn pathetic representing the Jeb with such a nasally voice, I offered,

"I work for an Institute, we're trying to take Itex down." Max scoffed,

"And you didn't think that would be more then a one-man job with all those Erasers?"

"I was just the recon team, to check they were there. We've had five failed hits and they wanted to be sure before sending in the cavalry - my people were waiting for me to send the place into lockdown so they could attack. They might've managed it," I finished thickly, "I think the Itex guy set the alarm off for me..." Max seemed to consider my words for a second. And eventually, apparently giving me the benefit of the doubt, she got off me; standing back as I pulled myself up, both hands heavily gripping the nearest tree for support.

"Sorry to burst your bubble," she said coldly, "but I've already scoped the place. There's nothing in there. It's a decoy."

"But you just said, there were so many Erasers outside - why would they have them guarding-"

"I don't know how much your people at this Institute know" she said, cutting me off sharply, "but Itex churn out Erasers like fast food - there's sure as hell enough to station at old facilities..." she sighed, running a hand through her hair, frowning "but that's probably my fault - this is the 23rd base I've hit so far, they're probably trying to catch me out, stationing them at places they no longer use."

There was a moment of silence.

"Do you think we could work together?" I asked slowly. Max stared at me in disbelief.

"And why would I want to do that?" I shrugged,

"I assume we're both trying to stop Itex, and also we're apparently going about it in the same way. We're bound to bump into each other at some point if your searching their facilities." Max looked at me cautiously,

"Why are you even trying anyway?"

"I just told you, I want to stop-"

"Yeah, but what's in it for you? If they're stopped." I grimaced,

"I don't know if you've been following reports, but over the last, god, sixteen years? There's been a massive spike in child and infant kidnappings - even sperm banks. The Institute found out that Itex is behind it, and our director had the resources, so now we're trying to stop them."

"So, what, they picked you up off the street? Or you got a personal grudge against Itex?" Underneath her scathing expression, I almost heard a little hope in Max's voice, but all I could offer was a small shrug,

"My step Mum used to work for the Institute - a few of her higher up friends thought I had potential. Personally, I think Itex should be stopped. So I'm helping them..." Max frowned at me, and I felt right now I should be offering my own curiosity (at least anyone who didn't know about her history with Itex would), "What about you? Personal grudge?" Max narrowed her eyes,

"You could say that." I bit my lip, feeling a little dejected that she still didn't feel comfortable enough to say anything further - but that was her secret, and I wasn't going to push her. I nodded, looping back around,

"So…did you want to work together?" Max kicked the ground distractedly, thinking on it for a second before saying defiantly,

"My people will contact your people about it." I frowned at her,

"Who are you working with?" Max snorted,

"The government, you'll know them if they call." She walked away from me, further into the trees, staring a little confused as the night-light and trees swallowed her from sight. I heard a rustling a fair way off, and though I couldn't see through the tree canopy, I had a feeling Max had just taken off into the sky.

Max was helping the government? How did that work? I mean, for social security's sake, they're not exactly known for not asking questions, and Max wasn't one to just tell her life story...

Well now I had a hell of a lot more questions to ask Jeb when I got back.

Oh. Yeah.

I need to get home.

Wow, what a Sunday night; sneak into Itex, get beaten up, run a few miles at full pelt, and now a hike all the way back home.

I groaned, pulling out my GPS to orientate myself, hoping against hope that the Institute had managed to take the Itex building; because other then meeting Max tonight night, this whole thing didn't feel like it'd been worth loosing sleep, not with a Monday morning on the horizon...

* * *

><p><strong>What's that you say? A factoid? A chapterly factoid? Well I suppose I could impart such information pour vor vou...<strong>

**A 'jiffy' is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second  
>Just in case you really want to sound scientific and overly British :P *twists moustache helpfully*<strong>

**Thanks for reading you wonderful little internet person :)  
>Fly on,<br>M**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5:  
><span>Dating and Dirty Work<span>

* * *

><p><span>Ari (A-jax) POV<span>

The doors of the lift opened and I stepped out in the underground level of the school - or the Institute as Fang knew it. Dad was sitting at his desk, his glasses lop sided on his face, drinking his coffee like an insomniac. He looked up as I entered, sitting back with a small, tired smile as I stalked over to the front of his desk,

"Morning Ari." I drew up a chair from the corner of the room,

"Hey Dad." he yawned, taking his glasses off and rubbing his eyes, "they didn't keep you up all last night did they?" He gave a breathy laugh,

"Oh, well, with how Fang's mission went can you blame them?" I frowned, tilting my chair back on two legs,

"That's not your fault. I don't get why they shoulder Max's capture all on you - Dr Hagen would jump at the chance for your job." Jeb shook his head,

"No. I can- Fang can do it." He picked up one of many sheets of paper littering his desk and scribbled something else down,

"So what your next move?" I asked, Dad looking up, a little dazed. Fighting the urge to be patronising, I clarified, "with capturing Max and Fang?" Jeb took a deep breath, shrugging and I rolled my eyes, "I don't see why we can't just take 'em by force-"

"No." Jeb said quickly, snapping my patience,

"Well why the hell not?!"

"Language Ari," he said quietly, but I spoke over him,

"Look, how is Fang buddying up with Max going to do anything to help? We can't kidnap Max to reel Fang in, cause you seem to thing she's too strong - even though three Erasers were enough to finish her off. And we can't kidnap Fang, unless we offer his life for hers - and she's wouldn't fall for that anyway. But, if we took them both on, cause none of Fang's gadgets actually work, with enough Erasers we'd have them back here in hours" Dad pursed his lips,

"I'm not hurting either of-"

"WHY!? Dr Hagen told me it's Max's fault they made me into this thing! Doesn't that mean anything to you?!" Dad screwed up his eyes for a second, dropping his paper work and looking up at me seriously,

"Ari, that's enough." But I was on a roll,

"What d'you think Mum would want?! Hagen told me she died because of Max! Why are you so against laying a finger on her, it's a load of bullsh-" The door connecting to the labs slid open and I stopped, mid-sentence, Dr Hagen himself steeping into the room, his voice resonating in his throat,

"Is there a problem here gentlemen?" I stood up straight, to attention, not looking at Hagen. I'd come to terms with the fact that he'd had no choice but to hurt me in turning me into an Eraser, and forcing out a lot of Max's bullcrap hadn't been painless, but since then, he couldn't have been nicer too me - telling me more about Mum, about why I ended up at Itex, then Jeb ever would. But still. He could still use one hell of a scary tone; one that just gave of such a powerful vibe, it made me a little feel inferior even in wolf form.

"I apologise Doctor, Ari and I were having a small disagreement" Dad explained, adding, "nothing to worry about." I felt Dr Hagen's gaze boring through the back of my head, and automatically began to slide into the military position they'd taught me while I was in combat training.

"Well…" Dr Hagen said, stepping further into the room, "your son seemed very...passionate in his views. What did this all concern?"

"We were discussing Mission Fallen Angel, Ari seemed to have some strong ideas of action." Shiny shoes came into my field of view and a hand clapped on my shoulder strongly,

"Well…you waste much more of our time Batchelder and we might have to put your son in charge to resolve the whole situation." I looked up at Dr Hagen, shocked, but his eyes were focused in a staring match with Dad, giving him a more look wolfish then I could ever manage in my other form.

"...Yes sir" Dad ground out, Dr Hagen chuckling silently,

"Tell you what, since I'm feeling so generous, I'll give you another two weeks. After that time, you will report your findings to me, and, if we still have a negative result, we'll have to consider implementing other options." he smiled at me, "we shall talk later of your ideas young man." I nodded minutely, trying to stand tall as he turned, sweeping from the room impressively - Dad letting out a barely there sigh as the door swished shut.

He ran a hand through his hair, beginning to sort through papers again, and I wondered how someone so dedicated couldn't work out a plan of attack, considering all the time he spent working.

"Dad?" I asked, his head jerking up. "How did Fang and Max actually get out?" Jeb looked back down at his papers, shuffling them distractedly,

"No idea."

"None of his equipment works. I mean sure, the tranq gun is loaded and that belt was to test whether he's gaining any mutant potential, but the gadget that opens doors is a piece of art. We open and shut all the doors he uses on those missions - make it feel real for him. He the only locks he could pick were mechanical - and the one on the cell door was keycard operated..." He sighed,

"I…forgot about his dog tags…there's a laser in it…he has it for emergencies and I forgot about it. It's my fault. I know. That's why I've been up all night working - they found out it was my fault and I didn't have much choice but to come in." I scowled,

"You know, it'd be safer if we went ahead with my plan. If Fang gets too close to Max they'll end up teaming up. And that's the last thing you need." Dad shook his head,

"I-…" he frowned down at the papers, "look, I'll handle it before that happens - and I'm sure Dr Hagen would take it out my hands if it gets to that. But I can do this. I'm sure. Now that we have a little more time..."

* * *

><p><span>MAX POV<span>

I sat bolt upright in the darkness, heart pounding and clammy, reality seeping back into my senses again. I screwed up my eyes, falling back onto my pillow - trying to scrub the image of Ari's face off the backs of my eyelids.

It'd been a week since I'd met Fang at that Itex base - but, much to my surprise, he hadn't changed at all. In fact, he seemed to be acting normally, which I couldn't decide was a good or bad sign, and what confused me even more was that he appeared to be smiling more - again, good or bad, it was Fang, so I don't know.

I'd visited more Itex labs, saved only three more mutants who were recovering on the CSM, and luckily I hadn't had to fight too brutally since that night with Fang; and man, for a human, he had some moves, sure the tranq gun might've helped, but most humans wouldn't be able to manage fighting an Eraser if they had a real gun.

I'd been over it, trying to work out any other explanations; was he a mutant, was he a robot, an Eraser even (though for an Eraser he smells damn good)...but if he was one of these psychos out to kill me, he'd have had plenty of chance to do it by now. He wouldn't just sit there looking pretty.

I was starting to think that maybe he just was different; that my paranoia was getting the better of me yet again, and good things could happen to bird kids - I mean, look at Iggy and Ella.

I sat up again, trying to push it all to the back of my mind and pulling back one of the curtains. Sunlight was barely creeping over the horizon. Perfect. Knowing I was too restless to get any more sleep now I got up, pulling on my flight gear and opened the window - leaping out to stretch my wings for a while...

* * *

><p>I was back in a few hours, most of the dangerous thoughts blown out my head now the sun had risen higher in the sky, and hearing the clattering of plates downstairs I trotted to the bathroom for a quick shower so I didn't stink at breakfast.<p>

Slipping on a pair of jeans, and one of my t-shirts that let my wings free I followed my nose downstairs, the bacon as good as calling my name. Sure enough, Dr M greeted me with a hug and a plated mountain of bacon eggs and toast - if I'd been an Eraser, I would've probably morphed out just to wag my tail.

I thanked her, as did my stomach with a bubbling whine, sitting down next to Rob, who was going over some CSM papers. Between mouthfuls we talked over the possibilities of new Itex branches, only stopping when Ella came bounding downstairs in a towel, asking Dr M's opinion on today's outfit choice. She ended up dragging her mother upstairs, and I turned to Rob, opening my mouth to ask what she was so frantic about, only for Rob to shake his head silently.

I snorted a little, carrying on with CSM buisness till I'd finished my breakfast, but having to leave Rob for the homework that'd piled up after all the sleepless nights Itex hunting. I dragged myself upstairs, closing the door tiredly and flicking my radio on, sitting down to do the bare minimum of homework for the best part of an hour - wings unfurled and lying as limply as my enthusiasm.

With my last set of questions done I pulled out Dr M's laptop, continuing my Itex research and adding in Rob's new info, getting so engrossed that even my bird senses didn't pick up on someone standing outside my door.

"Yo Max?" I jumped feet, slamming my laptop shut on one of my hands, flaring my wings out ready to take flight. But it was only Fang, "can I come in?" Exhaling a little to try and calm down I grabbed a loose hoodie, tucked my wings in and pulling it on - checking they were hidden in the mirror, and quickly checking the floor for feathers before opening my door.

Fang stood in the doorway, hands in the pockets of his usual plain black attire, smiling at me a little awkwardly.

"Hey," I said slowly, "er...what are you doing here?" Fang grimaced,

"Nudge came over to check everything was alright for Ella's date - she thought you might want some company." I rubbed the back of my neck subconsciously, keeping up a small smile and nodding,

"Oh…right. Yeah. Sure." Ella's door swung open the both of us looked down the hallways as Nudge appeared, singing gleefully and skipping towards us. She pushed Fang out the way, throwing herself at me in a hug, and I flinched, pulling my wings in achingly tight as she gripped me tightly, drawing back with a squeal,

"Max! Oh, man, this is so exciting…" she bounced back, Ella walking down the hall looking even prettier then usual. I raised my eyebrows,

"You look nice. What's the occasion?" Ella smiled sheepishly,

"I have a date."

"With Iggy," Nudge finished happily. My mouth fell open,

"You…" I gaped at her, raising my voice a little, "you guys are actually dating now?" Ella smiled bashfully,

"Well, since today…" For the first time in my life, I actually squealed, doing a fabulous impression of Nudge and throwing myself at Ella in a hug,

"Why didn't you tell me?!" Ella patted my back gently,

"Well…it's Iggy. I didn't know if you'd approve considering what you've both…" Nudge pushed us apart,

"Wait, you don't mean Iggy and Max have history." I screwed up my face,

"Ew, no! We used to live in the same…neighbourhood. We just went through some stuff together - we're pretty close." I stood back dumbly, "In fact, I don't know who to threaten more about hurting each other." I scratched my head thoughtlessly, Ella rolling her eyes,

"I'd better go, I'm going to be late."

"Hey, wait," I said, going after her, "I'll walk you there - I need to give him a big speech about hurting you and stuff, that's what they do in the movies right?" Ella didn't turn around but I could hear her smile in the mutter of,

"Fine." I grinned, turning around and waving a hand at Fang,

"You guys coming?" Nudge grinned,

"Yeah, Mum's picking me up in town anyway - we'll just do some shopping!" She bounded down the stairs, past me, Fang staring at me, horrified, from the top of the stairs.

"No shopping." I promised, beckoning him down the stairs as he gave me a doubtful look, following at a slump down the stairs...

* * *

><p>We walked into to town, chatting idly, stopping a quarter of an hour later outside the park gates - about a block outside of town. Ella left us at the gate, expressly forbidding me to talk to Iggy before the date, and Nudge ran off to shop to her heart's content. That left Fang and I, looking across the park, seeing Iggy offering Ella his hand, which she took, entwining their fingers and letting him lead her away towards town. I sighed.<p>

Dang I hope it goes well...and that no Erasers show up and kill the vibe. Crap I hadn't even thought about that. What if they took the both of them? What if they saw Ella with Iggy and assumed it was the key to catching a couple bird kids, maybe even a new subject. I looked up at Fang, eyeing him carefully, and he frowned down at me, using an accusatory tone of voice,

"What are you thinking?" I squinted at him,

"How would you feel about seeing that everything goes to plan?" Fang looked confused and I grimaced, "you know, check nothing can interfere with their date?" He raised his eyebrows,

"You're going to stalk you sister on a date?" I frowned sarcastically,

"Well I'm thinking something more low key then putting on a moustache and dressing up as a waiter." He snorted,

"I don't know about your people, but the institute has never made me do that." I raised my eyebrows,

"Lucky for you, my people believe in the ways of the ninja - following from afar. So you in?" He looked around, as if trying to figure out a way to get out of this then sighed,

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but fine. Lead the way sensei." I grinned, punching him very lightly in the shoulder in thanks and heading into a light jog - slow enough for a human like Fang to keep up. Iggy and Ella had vanished through the opposite gate, and I dodged all the jumping, frolicking, and screaming children playing on the grass, only slowing up when we reached the park gate.

I held it open for Fang, looking both ways along the street, spotting a tall head of ginger hair disappearing around the corner. I did a quick 360 scan for threats, checked I had Fang on my heels, then set off at a jog again down the street - pausing at the end to check we didn't get too close.

We followed them down a few more roads, making it quite near the centre of town before stopping - Iggy escorting Ella inside a coffee shop.

I led Fang over, about to pass the cafe's window when Fang grabbed my arm, pulling me to a stop gently,

"I thought you said you'd dropped the waiter idea." I grimaced, not wanting to say I needed to check for particularly attractive men drinking coffee, but unsure how to phrase it. Fang frowned at me, "look, Max, I have a sister - and I know if that was Nudge in there, then she would eat me alive if she caught me within half a mile of where she was having a date."

I chewed on my bottom lip thinking, turning around to look at what little I could see through the window, catching sight of Iggy and Ella at the door - Iggy focusing on holding the door open for Ella, while Ella focused a soul dissolving look at me.

Okay, so maybe Fang knew what he was talking about.

I quickly scoped my escape routes but there was no where to hide on the bare street, no where to run in time so it didn't look like we were following them. But, thankfully, it seemed Fang had a plan.

Quickly and lightly he guided me back against the wall of the coffee shop, my hands raising up against his chest as he stepped in closer. He covered my mouth with the hand furthest from Iggy, pressing his lips against his fingers like they did to kiss in the movies, his fee hand hovering at my waist.

"Max?" I heard Iggy ask, Ella clearing her throat and Fang breaking away from me smoothly, standing closer then usual and smiling at them both, Ella giving us both a stoney look but Iggy beaming, "what are you guys doing here?" Fang took the lead, slightly red in the face as he lied smoothly,

"Oh we're just going out for some lunch aren't we angel?" his tone was half hilariously sugary, half unnerving, especially at the nickname, but I didn't have much time to think about it as Iggy said,

"I didn't realise you two were dating?" I smiled at him, leaning as close to Fang as my personal bubble would allow, trying to laugh but only coming up with a feeble giggle,

"Oh, yeah…you know…" I could feel my ears heating up as I trailed off, Ella cutting anything else I had to say short,

"Well, we're off, have a nice lunch won't you?" she smiled at the both of us, sweetly, glancing back at Iggy who had an arm looped around her waist,

"Hey, why don't we go have lunch together," Iggy said, "I'm taking Ells to the fair ground afterwards but we could find a nice place to eat."

I shook my head, noting Ella's expression and saying quickly, "Nah. It wouldn't be safe with all our appetites. Thanks for the invite though." Iggy nodded, raising a hand,

"Sure thing, see you around then." I nodded, raising a hand and Iggy steered Ella around, the both of them walking further into the centre of town. Fang and I stood there, watching them go, and when they were out of ear shot I turned to see a still red Fang saying,

"Sorry about all that. Just wanted to make sure they didn't think we were following them," I laughed emptily,

"I think Ella might've killed me if you hadn't." Fang smirked,

"You want to actually go get something to eat then?" I opened my mouth but my stomach wailed at me before I could get any words out. Fang laughed silently, "I'll take that for a yes then - let's make it quick before you spontaneously combust." He hooked a hand around my shoulders jokingly, and I snorted at him, saying in a sugary voice,

"Oh, are you paying" I made quote marks in the air, "'angel'?" He rolled his eyes,

"With the amount we both eat, heck no - I'd be broke for several millennia." I laughed, elbowing him in the side so that he released the arm around my neck,

"Fair enough..."

* * *

><p>We ate lunch in town, Fang offering to stand in line for me if I got a seat. I handed over a good deal of money, finding a table by the fire exit in the corner, just sitting down as my phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out, bracing myself for a rant text in all capital letters from Ella dearest, but to my surprise it was Iggy:<p>

_So, you and Fang? Well I can't say I didn't see that coming..._

I frowned down at the screen;

_That was cause I was worried you'd be too loved up to be checking for Erasers - we were tailing you till you but you came out early, Ella looking like she was set to kill. Fang just took it upon himself to make it look like we weren't stalking you - y'know, hand over the mouth like in the movies._

IGGY: _You know you ramble when you're defensive?_

MAX: _What makes you think I'm being defensive - I'm explaining._

IGGY: _Explaining everything apart from the fact you were blushing that close to Fang. I was blind a while a go but my visions pretty damn good now max ;)_

MAX:_ He's human._

IGGY: _He likes you._

MAX: _What makes you say that?_

IGGY: _See now you're curious._

MAX:_ No I'm not._

IGGY:_ Alright, let's say you're right. But as far as Fang knows, I'm human, and now think you're dating. So you guys are going to have to pretend you're going out, so that Fang thinks you're both fooling me, so you can please Ella._

MAX:_ I'm not pretending to go out with Fang. We just happened to break up this weekend.__  
><em>

IGGY_: oh, sure, you'd both be single, but you'd also still flirt at the lunch table._

MAX:_ we don't flirt._

IGGY:_ Max, we grew up in a cage, not a barn - you flirt and he flirts back._

MAX:_ I'm not having this conversation._

IGGY:_ Fine, have fun on your lunch date 'angel' ;P_

I opened Ella's contact, texting her_; Ella slap your boyfriend, he's being rude._

ELLA: _How about you slap your boyfriend for all the PDA in the middle of my first date!_

I felt a pang of guilt, hoping their first date was going well, but also slightly confused on what I was going to do.

* * *

><p><span>ARI POV<span>

I watched from behind the corner of the street, Iggy (subject 3) and the Ella girl reappearing from the coffee shop, and Fang pushing Max against the wall...and kissing her.

Fang pulled back, the four of them striking up a conversation, Fang's cheeks a little red.

I stared at him. What the hell was that? Fang didn't blush…he's always been able to pull up an emotionless mask, he's trained for it...unless he wants to get _that_ close to her.

And in that case, Mission Fallen Angel could be compromised. I pressed a finger over my radio,

"Dr Hagen?" there was a crackle, then a beep,

"Yes my boy?" I took a deep breath, hoping what I was about to say would take the stress off of Dad's back a little.

"We need to have a chat about mission fallen angel - Fang may be compromised..."

* * *

><p><strong>And let the ship set sail :P<br>Now, may I present to you a chapterly dose of a fairly-abstract-sort-of-intresting factoid...**

**Porcupines float in water  
>I'm sorry, give me a moment, that's freaking adorable x)<strong>

**Thanks for reading through this chapter you pretty little homosap****ien :P  
>Reviews are so very muchly appreciated if you could spare me a few words?<br>Thankies ^-^  
><strong>**Fly on,  
>M <strong>


	6. Chapter 6

**Welcome, young stranger, to the first update of Mission Fallen Angel.  
>Before we begin, I would like to call to your attention all the people doing multiple 'whiz bang' things after the last chapter;<strong>

**Thanks to the Remarkable Reviewers****:  
>deleteddecember2014<br>FaxFiction**

**The Fabulous Favouriters****:  
>Scarylulaby<strong>

**And the Awesome Alerters****:  
>Chocolate5tar<br>Scarylulaby  
>FaxFiction<strong>

**Thanking you all muchly :D Now, without further ado, read on thou radical peoples of FanFiction...**

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 6<span>:

The Empire Strikes Back

(An Itex Rewrite)

* * *

><p><span>Fang POV<span>

Max had beaten me to Music on Monday morning. Walking in I found her sitting, waiting, on the piano stool; sheet music on the stand, looking as relaxed as she could be whilst still being...well, Max. I closed the door behind me, walking over to her and dropping my bag beside me. She gave me a tight smile as I sat down and I smiled back - thinking how different this had all been at the start of the school term.

After an hour or so of piano playing we got dismissed for lunch, Max and I leaving for the canteen together.

As we walked through the corridors, I started getting uneasy, hairs standing up on the back of my neck like I was being watched. Whispers seemed to be following us as we walked, the kind that got quieter the closer we got, mumblings of something that sounded like our names. I could've mostly ignored it if it wasn't for Max; but her attempts at conversation were slowly withering the longer we walked, and her posture stiffened every time we passed any gossiping. I was about to ask if she was okay when she cut across me, talking through gritted teeth,

"I think Iggy might've spread the news that we're supposed to be dating..." she lowered her voice slightly, "though why everyone is so interested-"

She stopped short of what she was going to say, visibly tensing as we passed a group of giggling girls, a couple of them staring at us as we walked by. I clenched my jaw, mentally punching myself.

Nice job Fang, force a fake relationship on her; cause getting people to stare at her is going to make her feel so much more comfortable then a sisterly rant.

"Sorry" I tried, awkwardly.

"Why are you sorry?" she snapped, "Iggy's the one who's gonna be sorry when I get ahold of him..." I raised my eyebrows,

"You're really going to beat him up, for spreading around something _he thinks_ he saw?" Max's ears went red and she closed her mouth resiliently.

I broke away from her as a group of heavy clad football players strutted down the corridor, clearly not willing to change the direction of their swagger and near enough barrelling through us. Weaving around them to fall back into step beside her, I hesitated a second before asking unsurely, "...did you end up telling Ella what actually happened?" Max paused for a second,

"...No...I didn't." I raised my eyebrows,

"Are you going to?" Max ran a hand through her hair,

"I...haven't decided yet...I mean...Ella might..." Max fidgeted around, apparently trying to find the right words, but running a hand through her hair again, all she said was, "...it's complicated." I frowned (not that Max saw, she was determined not to look at me) but feeling like I needed to straighten out what was supposed to be happening, I pushed on,

"So...what? We pretend?" Max tilted her head but didn't say anything, and walking slightly in front of me as we entered the canteen she began avoiding conversation as well as eye-contact, leading the way to the queue for food.

Okay, now I understand why being quiet annoyed people.

I tried to ignore the eyes on the back of my head as we got our food, following Max over to our table and sitting down opposite Nudge, who briefly stopped babbling away to Ella to say hi. Iggy looking up from Ella's other side, giving us both a small wave, and with the knowing look he gave the both of us I scooted slightly closer to Max - making sure to maintain enough distance so I didn't make her uncomfortable.

Max however didn't seem to mind at all, shuffling even closer, sitting so close our legs were pressing together, her familiar (well-masked) smile popping up as Ella grinned at her,

"Word's travelled fast about you and Fang." Max grabbed my hand from my lap, holding up like she was trying to prove we'd been hiding the gesture under the table,

"Er…yeaaah. Got a lot of odd looks on the way here," Iggy rolled his eyes, his arm slung around Ella's waist,

"That'll be A-jax...he's been slagging you two off all morning - trust me, you don't want to know most of it" Max closed her eyes tightly but Iggy held up a hand reassuringly, "don't worry...I set him straight, told them all how it is...how much of a good match you were. I think they're just still buzzing with the rumours..." I looked down at Max to gauge her reaction of this and she sighed, looking up at me as she felt my gaze. I held her eye contact for a second, not really sure what I was looking for in her face, and Max raised her eyebrows at me, asking accusatively,

"...What?" I didn't answer, and feeling a lurch in my stomach I shook my head and turning away, busying myself with my food as Nudge and Ella started another quick fire conversation...

* * *

><p><span>Max POV<span>

Mine and Fang's staged relationship seemed to be going well by the time the weekend rolled around.

All we had to do was hold hands when Iggy was around; though that did end up escalating to constant hand holding, as the stupid ginger made a habit of popping up in the corridors, asking why we didn't have our fingers intertwined.

Prat.

I had of course lied to Fang. Both Iggy and Ella knew what my real relationship status was, and there'd be no problem in me ditching the title of girlfriend.

But I didn't.

I spent most of my time at school with Fang anyway (only now we also held hands when we hung out) but by the end of the week it started feeling kind of odd if I wasn't holding his hand. Course, that was just down to me getting used to the physical sensation of hand holding...at least that's what I kept telling myself. I did (almost) want to do that typical 'over-thinking-teenager' thing, but every nightmare with Ari weighed me down with guilt, reminding me how selfish it was to even think about how I liked holding Fang's hand. Ari was still trapped in hell, in God knows what kind of condition, and here I was trying not to fall for a human.

Either way, I tried to shove all those thoughts to the back of my head, but my tactic of ignoring this whole dating fiasco did have loopholes - one aspect being Dr M, Ella, and Iggy. Iggy, surprisingly, wasn't too invasive about the whole thing; sure he didn't ignore it, but all he ended up doing was what Ella told me was called 'the shipping of an innocent fangirl'. Adopted sister dearest on the other hand, wasn't quite so docile. Any chance she got for us to be alone she slipped into constant nagging, asking me to talk about what I thought I was doing, where I thought I was going, and what I really felt in my heart of hearts - honestly, I think all those teachers asking you what you wanted to do with your life were less oppressive and annoying. Ella even tried to rope Dr M into it, but after a talk that concluded in me storming off to fly in bright daylight Dr M only told me that she hoped I wasn't going to get myself hurt. I refused to think about that too.

All this, because I couldn't keep a few thoughts in check around Mr tall, dark and handso- ...see this is what I'm talking about.

And how did I resolve it, I hear you ask dear reader? Well, the universe kindly decided to do it for me, booking me in for the first Saturday afternoon that followed our first week of fake dating - though to say it was kindly isn't really a great description of how everything went down.

Ella, Iggy, Nudge, Fang and I met up in front of a coffee shop, something we'd started making a habit of most weekends - getting together to 'paint the town red' or whatever 'normal kids' did these days. Saturday was forecast to be that day of rain before beautiful sunshine. Lucky for Ella, Iggy had had the forethought to bring a large umbrella (sure, to share it and still stay dry, he and Ella had to cuddle pretty, but it's not like either of them thought that was a problem). Nudge brought a smaller umbrella too, this one fit for one person. And that left Fang and I, who'd both settled for hoodies; a perfectly reasonable choice to make with the weather earlier, but the drizzle was slowly turning into a downpour, and I was beginning to feel uncomfortably damp and cold.

The rain got harder and harder, and we'd barely reached the middle of town when Nudge started complaining about her lack of sensible footwear (rain be damned, her and Ella still insisted on taking the whole fashion thing pretty seriously). The rain didn't look like it was going to let up any time soon, and by now, most of us were feeling a little miserable wandering around in the wet. Ella thankfully suggested that we could all go back to the Martinez's to dry off - it was the closest of all our homes after all, and considering we'd have to walk back in the wet it made the most sense.

So, with the downpour beginning to drown out Nudge's motor mouth, we started our retreat; Fang and I still holding hands, fingers slipped into each others sleeves so that we could stay as dry as possible.

We were just reaching the outskirts of town when a lorry passed us, the driver speeding through the puddle on the road and sending a wave of rainwater rising up to meet us on the pavement. Those wielding their umbrellas deflected most of it, and by sheer dumb luck, Fang stood in the perfect position for me to act as his human shield.

I got drenched, pretty much solidly wet from the waist down, not funny when you're in jeans. Fang however seemed to find it hilarious, grinning at my disgruntled expression and using that awfully sugary sweet voice,

"Want my coat, angel?" I narrowed my eyes, pulling my hand from his and pushing him over into the nearest puddle. He fell butt first, and I laughed at him sarcastically as he landed on the pavement with a sickening slop of muddy water.

"Here we go..." Ella muttered, Fang scrambling back to his feet in disgust and staring at me stonily.

I stuck out my tongue and flounced off, looking back over my shoulder to see him still glaring at me. I smirked, turning back around to walk along with the others. At the sound of splashing however I went with my gut, jumping forwards, avoiding what had been Fang's attempt to push me. I laughed at him tauntingly, jumping forwards into a run and dancing out of reach.

"We gonna meet you two back home then?!" Ella called out, neither of us answering as Fang launched after me in a sprint.

Slowing up enough for a human to catch up I took a hard left down a wide alley, the others vanishing from sight. I came out onto another small deserted street, the rain apparently keeping everyone inside and out of our way as we ran along the pavement. Somehow Fang caught up to me, grabbing me from behind in a bear hug, and I twisted in his arms, breaking out of his hold but toppling over backwards in the process.

A split second before I lost my footing Fang caught me around the waist, and I grabbed his shoulders for support, staring at that half smile,

"Now," He said quietly, looking down at the fairly deep puddle underfoot, "Are you going to apologise, or am I going to have to drop you?" I stared at him flately,

"I'm already soaked you idiot." He sighed, carelessly,

"Fine." Apparently trying to be threatening, he loosened his grip around my waist. But I gave Fang's shoulders an effortless tug, twisting us around as I floored him, cushioning his head with my hand so he didn't crack it on the pavement. He landed with a look of horror on the ground, staring at me as I lay on top of his chest, his hoodie soaking up puddle water.

Puny human.

I got to laugh at his expression for barely a second before he pulled me closer, rolling over before I knew what was happening, so that we switched places; with me lying on the puddle strewn pavement, water soaking through the back of my jeans and into my hair, my feathers brushed with a thin layer of moisture as my hoody got soaked.

I let out a sound of disgust, pushing myself up roughly, Fang sliding back to straddle my thighs with a smirk,

"Wet, isn't it?" I frowned very heavily, but he leant forwards, head butting me very gently. The rain began to hammer harder, drumming on the rooftops and the road as Fang stood up, water dripping off his nose as he offered me a hand up. I refused it, getting to my feet and shaking out my legs, trying to shift into a posture where my hoody didn't feel like a soggy cape.

A breeze swept through the street, blowing the rain towards us with frozen air, sending a shiver to run violently through my entire body. Fang's expression softened slightly, almost sounding concerned,

"We should get back - you're freezing." I raised my eyebrows proudly, starting to ache with cold, and Fang held out his arms like he wanted a hug, grinning sarcastically, "Course, I would offer you something dry to put on...but..." He trailed off, gesturing to his sopping wet clothing. I grinned at him, jerking around at the sound of a car's engine, but the van parked, after three tries, and upon spotting the 'Learner' sticker on its bumper I felt a little more reassured. Turning back to Fang I gave him a gentle shove in retaliation, gaining a roll of the eyes as he straightened into his usually stoic posture, reaching for my hand in an attempt to lead me back along the street.

But as a familiar deep voice echoed across the street, I flinched, my comfortable stance cracking into a defensive one as I spun on my heel.

"Nice to see you've made some friends outside of school Maximum."

The figure was walking away from the van that'd just parked, and though he was a good way away from us I still dragged Fang behind me, arms raised slightly to bar him from the man walking towards us. Hands stuffed in his trouser pockets, and teeth whiter then his rain spotted lab coat, Dr Gunther Hagen glided towards us; looking between Fang and I, smiling like his food had just come at a restaurant.

How the hell did he find me? Had they found Iggy - was he now being faced with his white coat? If he was, Ella and Nudge were still with him - and if they'd made it back home already that could mean Itex now knows where the CSM director lives...

Dr Hagen Daäs looked over his shoulder, and I pushed back against Fang's attempts to stand in front of me (apparently trying to be macho or something). Fang didn't know who this guy was, didn't know what he was capable of - I needed to get him out of here before he can find out...if Hagen gets to him it's not going to be pretty...

"Fang." I muttered sharply, "I need you to run." Hagen responded before Fang could,

"That's not an option this time Maximum!" The rain had muffled their footsteps so far, but at the growl from my right I saw yellow eyes gleaming through the misty, rainy air. In human form but for their eyes, two flanked us from the right, two from the left, one walking over to stand at Hagen's side. Reaching back and grabbing a fistful of Fang's hoody I walked us back a few paces, eyes darting around for escape routes.

Hagen was talking to the human Eraser next to him, and though the down down pour of water all around us dulled my super senses, avian hearing still helped me pick out a name from Hagen's silky drawl.

Ari.

"WHERE IS HE?!" I yelled, "WHERE ARE YOU KEEPING HIM YOU SICK SON OF A BITCH?!" The Doctor didn't even stop talking to acknowledge me. "HAGEN!?" I roared. But my white coat turned around, walking back to the van as the Eraser he'd been chatting with walked closer,

"Calm down," he purred, "you'll be able to have a chat with Hagen when we get back to the school." My jaw dropped as I focused in on the Eraser. Dressed in a black camo kit, and not as pretty lupine hybrids usually were in human form (though he made up for it in muscle mass) I saw A-jax strutting towards us - his eyes now an icy bloodshot gold.

I felt Fang shaking a little behind me, whether through fear or cold I had no idea. The last time we fought them, it looked like he could barely fight Erasers with a tranq gun; there's no way in hell he'll survive in hand to hand combat, and that's if we weren't outnumbered - seven Erasers at one time is even above my pay grade. Feeling desperate I took a deep breath, yelling at A-jax,

"How does me coming quietly sound? You let this guy go, that's what I'm going to do!"

"Max-" Fang snapped warningly, trying to get out from behind me as A-jax gave a bark-like laugh,

"Oh Maximum, I don't think you're in any position to be making deals right now." Fang retaliated before I could,

"A-jax stop, I don't know what's going on but-"

"Oooooh…" he crooned holding a hand over his heart, "Fangy it hurts using my cover name in times like this - we're not at school, not yet anyway…but I'll give you another chance, go on, say my name." Fang paused for a second, and I could hear the stiffening of his shoulders in his voice,

"I won't let you do this," he raised his voice, "is this what they won't tell me, you're using Erasers? I thought we were fighting Itex not joining them!"

"We'll update you back at base Fang," A-jax snarled, "just pipe down while the big boys get on with business!" Fang finally managed to push me aside, standing in front of me and blocking my view of A-jax,

"Ari you can't do this! It's wrong it's-" but A-jax laughed, stopping in front of Fang who suddenly froze; I watched his shoulders slowly sinking, his posture sinking like he was physically piecing an idea together.

A sickening feeling started to curdle in my stomach, but I'd barely had time to notice it before A-jax morphed out, faster then I'd thought was possible. He ran around Fang, eyes on me, and Fang tried to jump in his path but I'd already slipped into battle mode; swinging Fang behind me by the sleeve and sending a drop kick into A-jax's gut. It didn't do as much damage as it would've done if I was wearing my combat boots, but it was enough.

Releasing Fang I swung that fist around in a right hook to his snout, pulling his head down by the ears and swinging my knee up to meet it - the cold numbing most of the impact but seeming to make him back off a few steps. But apparently the retreat wasn't due to the damage I'd caused. Instead the Eraser was hunched over in breathless laughter, grinning at me with yellow fangs.

"Keep your hands off him dogface..." I snarled, "I'm the one you want but he is not a part of this..." A-jax gave a bark of laughter, and nerves rippled down my spine.

Fang was going to die if I didn't do something fast. Screw my well being, they needed me alive - but Fang? He was no use to them whatsoever. Fang would get the deluxe retirement package plan, maybe even a few weeks in school worst came the worst. A-jax grinned at me, speaking with a kind of pitiful sarcasm,

"Ohhh Maxie," my blood ran cold at the nickname, the nickname Ari used to use. He seemed pleased with my reaction, smirking knowingly, "your friend Fang is just as much a part of this as you are, see-" but he faltered as I launched myself at him, taking him by surprise and managing to slam my knee into his chest, knocking the air from his lungs. Using his weight against him I threw myself forwards, the both of us falling to the floor as I punched him as hard as I could in the face.

Another Eraser's claws sliced through the back of my hoodie, picking me up like a garbage bag and flinging me through the air. I collided with the wall, dropping to the floor painfully and unable to move for a second - quaking with a mixture of shock and adrenaline. Unable to feel many of my fingers thanks to the cold I forced myself up, pulling my hoodie off with trembling hands.

Hiding from Fang wasn't going to help his life expectancy, and I needed to play the bird card while I still had cards left to play.

I heard Fang's yell of pain but I only had time to glimpse the three Erasers encircling him before the mutt who'd thrown me was 2ft away. I snapped out my wings, using them to throw myself forwards, double punching his chest as claws sunk deeply into my wings, hoisting me up like a puppet. Yelping through the pain I threw them backwards, getting in close enough to smash my palms over his ears. I didn't hear the pop over his high pitched cry, but with a kick to the head he was silenced altogether.

The deaf dog fell unconscious but I didn't have time to react to the other Eraser. The rain was making the Eraser's unique smell unbearable (mixing wet dog with sun dried trash) so, in contrast, the pain of being slammed up against the wall by the collar of my shirt was almost preferable to the smell crawling up my nose.

I shoved my arms up through his hold, stretching my shirt but not breaking his hold. I swung my foot in a kick to his groin but he backed up, sticking his butt out and head forwards to keep any unmentionables out of reach. Thanks to the proximity of his head (like any well mannered mutant would do) I gave him a head butt on the house. The Eraser dropped me and I fell to my knees, feeling like I'd shaken my brain loose. Autopilot thankfully took over and, though the world felt like it was seesawing, I managed to swing an uppercut into his sweet spot, making him fall to his knees with a gasp.

Using his shoulders as a spring board I leapt up into the air, snapping my wings open and kicking off his head to gain a little extra altitude. Two dogs down and two wing beats up I realised with a sickening pang that Fang had fallen silent (though the Erasers were still huddled around him offensively).

I tucked my wings in, pencil diving at one of the Eraser's heads, bending my knees a little as I barrelled feet first into him - knocking him out, cleanly. Landing on the Eraser's back as he hit the floor, I jumped at his smelly friend, swinging my foot in a round house to the Eraser's chest. The Eraser jumped back a step, growling, and I jumped to the floor, bracing myself for the next attack with one foot either side of Fang - who, from the seconds glance I could spare, appeared to be curled up, lying limply in half an inch of muddle water, and barely breathing.

The moment I spared for Fang was the moment hairy hands grabbed my wings, pulling them back at an odd angle and sending my flight muscles into spasm. I almost fell, my legs quivering under my weight as I span, a heel headed kick landing at his shoulder. I ducked the punch that came from my face but the Eraser behind me grabbed a fistful of my wet hair, tugging me backwards, away from Fang. I scrambled for footing, hands clawing at the paw twisted in wet dirty blonde hair. He released me, though only to grab both of my arms, pulling them behind my back - just short of dislocation. I threw out my wings, muscles still searing as I swung a meek sort of wing punch, but the Eraser with free hands sunk his claws into the wing's crest, drawing blood as I flailed around like a bird caught by a cat.

They shoved me down to the ground, my arms released as each 300llb sack of dog meat stood on a wing - pinning me so close to the ground I could only lift my head. I cried out, trying to pull my wings in, but the Erasers weight made breathing painful let alone struggling. All I could do was look ahead of me, watching as A-jax dragged the unconscious Fang over to the wall, arranging him in a sitting position, like a kid would with their toy dolls.

Seeing Fang so lifeless made my heart feel like it was closing in on itself, and scared of what A-jax was going to do to him I yelled,

"You've got me!" The Eraser ignored me, and I shouted louder, "I'm not going anywhere and he doesn't know anything! Leave him alone!" A-jax turned with a grin, swaggering over and pouting at me sympathetically,

"Actually Maxie, he knows a lot more then you think..." A-jax stopped in front of me, crouching down, "...but that would would be because, Fang's been working for Itex..." I glared at him and A-jax grinned at me maliciously, "Sure he didn't know it, pretty sure you didn't figure it out either, but let's be honest Maxie, how could you when you didn't even recognise me?" He pulled my hair upwards, lifting my head off the ground like he was trying to give me a better look at his face. I screwed up my eyes, willing tears to stop budding in their corners and gritting my teeth through the pain of the Eraser's weight on my wings.

"Come on Maxie!" He whined, dragging a claw impatiently along my cheek, deep enough to break the skin, "I mean I've grown some, but you know, science does that to you if you leave someone in a lab to rot..." I stared at him coldly. I wouldn't say it. I wouldn't believe it. And with my voice waterlogged with cold, I gritted my teeth,

"I don't care who you think you are, but-" A-jax punched me, violently, in the face. I yelled in pain, no longer able to just grin and bear it all, blood streaming down from what felt like broken nose.

"I KNOW YOU DON'T CARE!" He barked, "CAUSE YOU LEFT A 13 YEAR OLD BOY ALONE IN THE SCHOOL WHILE YOU ESCAPED! And a few little white coats turned him into this war machine, all while you ran around with these bunch of pansies!" He pulled my head back by the hair, as far as it would go, rain falling into my face as he yelled, "AND YOU KNOW WHERE THAT 13 YEAR OLD IS NOW?! HE'S TAKING DOWN THE GREAT MAXIMUM RIDE! SO, TELL ME - DO YOU RECOGNISE ME NOW?!"

The smelly breath was warm on my cold face, and tears were budding along my bottom eye lids as I stared at the once blue, now yellow eyes. My heart was pumping painfully hard; blood pushing itself sluggishly around my numb body, sickness sinking into my stomach, and my voice growing pathetically watery,

"…Ari?" The Eraser that was once my little brother laughed, manically, almost nervously. I could feel rain water dripping off my face, but from the wavering in my voice I had to guess some of it was tears,"oh god...what did they do to you…?" Ari lent forwards, wet nose inches from mine,

"What did they do to me?" He sounded proud. I stared at those slit-shaped pupils, appalled as a look of triumph staring back at me, "they made me a God. They gave me a means and an end. They gave me my family - a real family. One without a pathetic excuse for a sister." My voice cracked,

"Ari you are my family; you and Kate, Star and Ratchet, Holden and Wren, Iggy! All of you! I've been looking for you, all this time!"

"Oh, what, so you just 'couldn't find' the school?" he growled letting go of my hair to stand up, pacing like he was going through the motions of a speech he'd been planning since I'd left him, "You know sis, it doesn't take a genius to work out why they named our branch of Itex the school. Funnily enough, it was because it was under a high school," he turned around gesturing at Fang, still lying on the floor, unmoving, "a school where I met (what we decided would be) your little boyfriend!" Ari looked back at me, murderously quiet as the rain hammered on the rooftops, "We had him working with us for over half a year, ever since you've been gone, training him as a back up plan, waiting until you _finally_ appeared." The bones in my limbs began to feel numb, Ari growling,

"It was so irritating, having to make friends with Iggy without him recognising me, I had to take acting lessons. I tried to convince the school to take him back but...well, we thought he'd be the perfect bait to catch you. Some messing with social circles, him and your sister get too friendly, she brings him home, and we catch two birds with one stone - four in fact if the Martinez's happened to be home, then we'd get the government and their CSM off our tails. But, let's face it, even little Ella wasn't that stupid." I wriggled around at the mention of Ella but the Erasers shifted on my wings and I gave a pathetic little squeak before Ari carried on,

"So we tried younger mutants, considering you always had the soft spot for playing the hero we set up well guarded facilities. But that never worked either...no thanks to Dad no doubt...and when you'd escaped us 13 times we launched the emergency back up; Mission Fallen Angel. And, oh, you played right into our hands; get in close to Fang, let him get you two alone and - well..." He winked at me, "we could all head back to school - catch up on all the lessons you'd missed...shame you weren't with the Igster though," Ari sighed, clicking his fingers, "could've caught two birds with one stone..."

I felt everything shut down, relief setting in at the thought of Iggy and Ella being safe, but also panic, the reality that I was going back to school hitting me like a freight train.

But Ari hadn't finished, and crouching down he pulled my face up by the chin, dominantly, "It's funny, really. We told him we were trying to help mutants like you; all that time he knew you were a freak, all those lies he had to tell to build up your precious 'friendship'..." Ari grinned, "...knowing you 'angel'" he made little quotation marks in the air around the nickname, "you were probably a burden on him like you were on me - way I remember it, it always was the mission first, people second with Fang..."

And just like that I was alone again.

And I was going back to school -powerless to stop them.

And I struggled at they trust me up in duck tape, dragging me over to the van as Ari fetched Fang.

Dr Hagen got out of the passenger seat as we got closer; watching as me, Fang, and the fallen Erasers were flung in the back. I wriggled up into a corner, curling into a ball for warmth, wishing my wings weren't taped down so I could pull them around me. I shivered as the doors slammed shut, leaving us in total darkness as my throat closed up in panic - cutting my lungs off from their icy air supply.

I'd trusted Fang. I'd really almost trusted him. But he was an Itex pawn...and I'd let them in without even realising...

...How could I let...how could he...what have I done?!

Hot tears pricked at the corners of my eyes and I shivered violently; too numb to care how cold I was, too horrified at finding my brother too late.

I'd failed.

My little brother was gone.

All but one of my little flock was no where to be found...and now I were going back to school.

And I'd never see the CSM kids again...I could just see Angel's face when I didn't come back to see her tomorrow.

The engine choked to life and we headed off, and I felt my lip curl downwards as my emotional barrier cracked; leaving me to cry, silently, powerless to stop them as they dragged me back to hell...

* * *

><p><strong>Dun dun DAAAA!<strong>

**WAIT! A wild fact of the chapter appeared:  
>The nile crocodile can hold its breath underwater for up to 2 hours while waiting for prey - oh...that's comforting...<strong>

**Fly on,  
>M<strong>


	7. Chapter 7

**May I Have Your Attention Please?  
>The Roll Call of 'People-Doing-Whiz-Bang-Things-After-Last-Chapter' Is About To Begin:<strong>

**Give it up for:**

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**This chapter is longer then usual, hope you don't mind - if you do find yourself enraged at its increased length, please do scroll down to your chapterly dose of factoid at the bottom, in order to at least gain something for your pains.  
>And now, without further ado, read on you radical people of FanFiction...<strong>

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 7<span>:  
><span>Voices In Your Head?<span>  
><span>Meeting Yo Girl's (Mutant) Family?<span>  
><span>Welcome: You've Tuned In To the Life and Times of Fang<span>

* * *

><p><span>FANG POV<span>

"Fang..."

Someone was shaking me gently, "Fang?!"

I let out a small groan. Everything hurt, muscles that I didn't even know I had, were aching like someone had tried to stretch them thinking they were elastic bands. Most of my bones felt like broken eggshells that someone had tried to glue back together. I blinked blearily, grunting with effort as I rolled over, realising my clothes were still soaked through as I tried to stand up; a helping hand slotting under my arm and pulling me to my feet, encouraging quietly, "that's it, up you get..."

I got up, slowly, wobbling even with their hand cupping my elbow, and I reached out to steady myself on the nearest surface. Whoever was supporting me carefully let go as I regained most of my balance. I lent forwards on what looked like a desk, and blinking through a blur of pain I found I recognised it.

I was gripping the edge of Jeb's desk; the man himself leaning into my field of view, wearing a white lab coat and looking almost concerned. His glasses were askew on his nose, and a few strands of usually neatly combed hair were hanging down erratically, resting over the lenses of his glasses.

I stared at him, unease settling in my stomach, though I couldn't quite remember why...My brain was too slow to recognise Jeb slipping one hand into his white coat, pulling something out of an inside pocket.

I only registered the syringe when the needle had dipped beneath my skin, the aching scratch barely there as Jeb emptied its contents, yanking it out quickly and dropping it, empty, on the desk. Next second, like someone had twisted a camera lens into focus, everything rushed back; the ache dulled, my balance and vision levelled out, and anger hit me like a wave. Everything I'd thought about, doubted about the Institute seemed to flood together as I stared at Jeb in his white coat, everything that had happened before I'd woken up flashing in front of my eyes.

"Fang are-" Jeb never got any further.

I slammed my fist into his face, feeling the breaking of his nose as he staggered back. Eyes screwed up tight, his hands flying up to clutch his face, swearing through the pain. I lunged forwards, grabbing fistfuls of his white coat and throwing him face down on the desk; slipping one arm around his neck and pinning him in a half nelson, feeling a little sick at using one of the first moves he'd gotten Ari to teach me.

"Where's Max?!" I growled, Jeb trying to pull my forearm away from his throat, his voice clogged thanks to his nose,

"Fang, please-" I tightened my grip around his neck, snapping,

"Tell me what Itex has done with her - now, or we do this the hard way." Jeb's fingers scrabbled to loosen the grip around his neck, but I only tightened my hold - a voice echoing through the room. I whipped around, scanning all four walls only to find that we had the office to ourselves. But it spoke again, like the speaker was only talking inches from me, too fluid to be robotic, too robotic to be human.

_Fang let him go._

I stared down at Jeb, worried whatever he'd shot me up with was hallucinogenic.

"What the hell did you inject me with?!" I snarled.

_Fang, you've got to get to Max, let him go!_

Jeb, struggling to breathe, rasped,

"Top desk draw...Max...two doors on right...you-" I threw him to the floor and he cried out, falling onto his broken nose and crumpling on the floor, cradling his face and gasping for air.

I darted around the desk, stopping in front of the only set of draws, hands shaking as I wrenched open the top one. My stomach flipped as I saw all my old 'spy equipment' inside. The 'Institute' may've been a load of smoke and mirrors, but this stuff was definitely the real deal.

I snatched up the invisibility belt, pulling it through my belt loops and fastening it with one hand, the other busy clipping the pouch of tranqulizer ammo to my still sopping wet jeans. I picked up the tranq gun, but recognising the small case beneath it placed it on the desk for a second - flipping the catches of the case and opening the lid a little hesitantly.

They'd trained me how to fire the hand gun (for show I suppose, not many spies go around without a semi-automatic) but they'd never let me take it on missions. I was only a recon 'agent', used for 'stealth missions'; firing it, even with the silencer, would apparently raise the alarm thanks to the Eraser's level of hearing. Right now however ,it was looking pretty useful; because the tranqs took a few seconds to kick in and I didn't know if I'd have those few seconds when I faced whatever was outside Jeb's office.

The silencer was already screwed on, and checking its clip I found it already loaded; so pocketing some extra ammo, I stuck the pistol in the back of my jeans, hoping that keeping the saftey off wouldn't mean I shot myself in the ass.

Loading up the tranq gun I ran back over to Jeb. He was still whimpering on the floor and clutching his face, but I managed to tug the ID badge from his neck; needing to unlock the card activated bolt on the door leading 'high access areas' - Itex. Pausing only to drop kicking him so he didn't raise the alarm, I ran over to the card reader, running Jeb's ID through the swipe slot and watching it beep happily - a green light flashing and the electronic bolt drawing back. I pushed down on the door handle silently, easing it open as quietly as possible and scanning the white, bright corridor beyond.

It was empty.

I edged out of the door, leaving it slightly ajar, and running in a crouch to the second door along - hoping that Jeb had caved, and was directing me to the room Max was in, rather then Itex's room for 'puppy' training. Just outside I leant back against the wall, rapping my knuckles on the door in case anyone was in there and raising the gun ready, pressing the button on my belt and standing stock still. I felt instead of saw myself turning invisible, a cold ripple of goosebumps running through me, and I held my breath, trying not to shake from the adrenaline rush as a morphed out Eraser opened the door.

He looked around, not seeing anyone but sniffing the air curiously. Before he could pick up my scent I fired the tranq gun, the bullet hitching itself in the bulging jugular of his neck. With my invisibility gone the Eraser snarled down at me, his shoulders hunching before he pounced, and ears twitching as he fought the drug now pumping through his veins. I threw myself out the way as he lunged, reloading another tranq as another two Erasers emerged from the doorway.

They glanced at their buddy (on all fours, shaking his head like a dog trying to get water off its fur) and in the moment it took for him to collapse I fired my second shot, getting one of them in the eye. He howled, painfully loudly, and I winced as echoes rang along the corridor - I need to fished them quick before someone came running to check what the racket was about. I jumped at the other Eraser, snap kicking him in the stomach. My punch was batted aside by his huge paw, claws raking along my arm and three fresh cuts stinging as he floored me, the tranq gun flying from my hand and a dull sense of pain buzzing through me.

300lbs of stinking dog isn't exactly easy to throw off, and it made me painfully aware of the firearm tucked over my backside, unreachable as I was pinned to the floor. Sacrificing my defence to reach for tranq ammo the Eraser managed to split my lip (and give me a clean black eye) before I'd grasped the material at the end of the bullet. I stabbed the Eraser under the ribs, my breath knocked out of me as he cuffed me around the face, paw slamming down by the throat and cutting off my airway. I gasped involuntarily, the Eraser tightened his grip, leaning over me with drool dripping from yellowed fangs.

Instinctively I must've stabbed the button on my belt again, because the cool rush of invisibility washed over me for a second, confusing the Eraser enough to loosen his grip. I managed to take a big enough gulp of air and send a weak uppercut to his muzzle before the tranq finally kicked in. The Eraser only had time to look back at me for a second before his eyes rolled back into his head. He fell on top of me, out cold, the weight of him squashing all the air from my lungs.

Trying to both breathe and push down a wave of nausea I did my best to crawl out from underneath him, standing up so fast my head began to spin. I snatched the tranq gun from the floor, looking around to check all the dogs were unconscious, and hearing movement from below me. It sounded more like machinery then white coats rushing to the scene, but it was still a little nice warning that I didn't have all the time in the world down here.

I jogged over to the door, nerves rattling through me as I entered a room barely larger than my bedroom back home. Various tables and instruments were dotted around the walls, but most of the decoration was kept to the back wall of the room, which was stacked from floor to ceiling with dog crates.

Itex, what I'd been trying to stop by working for the Institute, had been two doors down from where I'd been reporting in every morning, all this time.

Thankfully all but one of the dog crates was empty; and in the only occupied one, at the foot of the pile, behind the bars of the biggest cage, was an unconscious Max. She'd been changed into a hospital gown and her hair was still sopping wet like my clothes; from what I could see of her skin she looked like she'd been used as a punching bag, even those huge wings lying limply at a battered angle. The Erasers were apparently just putting her away, the padlock on her crate hanging open on the latch. I wriggled it off, pulling the door open and gently easing her out onto the floor. She lay, unmoving as I tucked her wings underneath her, sticking the tranq gun in the back of my jeans with the pistol and scooping her up, securely. I dashed back to the door, only stopping to scan the hallway for more Erasers before dashing back to Jeb's office - it was the only way out I knew, and there was no time to look for an alternative exit.

I pushed the door open awkwardly, rushing over to the elevator but stopping dead as I saw Jeb leaning heavily on his desk - clutching his nose but mostly upright. I stood stock still, wondering whether it was better to put Max down and knock him out, but she shivered, suddenly wriggling in my grip, and half falling to the floor. Her bare feet slapped against the cold flooring, wings flaring out to balance herself and clutching onto me.

Much to my surprise she didn't jump away from me, and the speech of 'I'm not going to hurt you' went to hell as she gripped me tightly, giving me a comforting nod before attempting to stand on her own, facing Jeb. She may look like crap, but she was still Max, and I couldn't see the look she was giving Jeb, but the atmosphere cranked up a notch as she stood up straighter. Jeb frowned at her, his voice kind of pathetic with a bunged up nose,

"...Back so soon Maximum?" Shivering where she stood, Max looked like she was going to run at Jeb for a second, but, clenching her fists, she only wobbled a little, shaking where she stood,

"...call Ari, we need to get out of here"

I stared at her, Jeb looking as confused as I felt,

"Call-?"

"Ari." She finished shortly, apparently serious.

Jeb gave her a very sad look but Max took a step towards him, raising her voice, "he's hurting but we can still save him."

It may've been his nose, but Jeb's voice suddenly sounded like it was broken, pushing his glasses further up his nose as he said gently,

"Max, he's gone..."

"He's your son!" She growled.

"Then I know better then anyone else" Jeb said urgently, "they went too far, he won't come back. Not to you, not to-"

"I left here 6 months ago without my flock," Max spat, taking another step forwards, "I will not make that mistake again. Now...Call Ari. And get the rest of them up here while you're at it."

An alarm started blaring from beyond Jeb's door, echoing through Itex's corridors. I ran over to the door, shutting it as a precaution and keeping a steady grip on the handle. Jeb walked behind his desk, opening up a laptop and beginning to type away. The electronic lock on the door made a clicking sound,

"I can reinforce the lock on the door and override security protocol to get the elevator working. But not for long. You'll need to leave quickly if you're going to escape" The elevator dinged cheerfully, the doors sliding open as Max stumbled up to the desk, fist slamming down on the table top, stronger then I thought was possible in her condition,

"I'M NOT LEAVING WITHOUT THEM!" Jeb continued typing,

"Max, please, I'm trying to help-"

"FUNNY, CAUSE I DON'T SEE YOU DOING ANYTHING TO GET MY FLOCK UP HERE!" Jeb stood up quickly, pulling her into a hug with one hand and pulling something out of his coat with the other. I ran forwards, thinking it was a syringe, but what he now held was maybe worse. Only he pointed it over Max's head, at me.

"Go. Now." Jeb said, drawing back from Max who stared from the revolver in his hand, to him, and back again,

"You don't think I'd die for them?" Jeb gave Max a pitying look,

"I'm not aiming at you sweetheart, and you're in no condition to play the hero." He was pointing the gun at me, Max giving him a disbelieving look,

"Like you'd shoot Fang, he's-"

"For my children, I'd do anything." Jeb said shortly, glancing up at me urgently, "Fang, escort Max upstairs and get yourselves out of here - if you stay here any longer they'll capture the both of you." He looked down at Max, a very soft expression on his face as he lowered his voice, "...and I don't think either of us, want Fang to find out Itex is really like, from behind bars..." Max's shoulders shook, from either cold or anger, her wings spreading out a little, as if to try and make herself bigger.

"I'm coming back." She said darkly. Jeb smiled at her fondly,

"...that's my Maximum." There was a crash from the other side of the door and I leapt away from it, Jeb aiming his revolver at the entrance, targeting the Erasers that were about to break into the office, "Go - NOW!"

I backed over to the elevator, Max giving Jeb one last look before jogging clumsily back to me, the both of us stepping through the open metal doors. I lent forwards, pressing the up arrow, Max leaning on the side of the wall for support as the doors slid shut. The floor shuddered for a moment then we started to rise.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Peachy," Max mumbled through gritted teeth, not looking at me, "not great with small spaces though." I nodded, trying to keep talking to take her mind off it,

"How do you know Jeb?" Max pinched the bridge of her nose, her voice pretty strained,

"He helped me out when I was younger." I frowned at her,

"I thought he was part of Itex."

"He works for them because they keep A-...because they keep his son in there as blackmail." I grimaced,

"Feel bad for punching him now." Max glanced up at me coldly and I shrugged, "thought he was Itex and I had to find out where you were somehow." Max looked me up and down,

"How did you even- I mean in town it looked like they'd put you through a meat grinder. Now..." I shook my head,

"No idea - I was pretty sure they'd kicked me into the afterlife. Woke up, no broken bones, hell barely any bruises; I even stopped aching when Jeb shot me up with adrenaline or something." Max stared at me and I held her gaze, "I know, it doesn't make any sense to me either, but I don't really want to hang around and ask Jeb for the full story-"

DING

The doors opened and we both looked out at the dark, thankfully empty, boiler room. We stepped out, the doors closing cheerfully behind us but shutting out most of the light. In the dim gloom I saw Max staring to our right, scanning over the bricked up 'old entrance' Jeb had told me about, before they'd put in the elevator.

"Erasers are coming" she muttered, her expression tightening as she squinted at the brickwork.

Where she got that from I had no idea, but considering I wasn't the medical miracle, I decided to trust she knew was she was talking about. I pulled the tranq gun from the back of my jeans, reloading as I ran over to the stairs, checking Max was still behind me as I started climbing.

At the top of the flight the door was unlocked and I pushed it open recklessly. It swung open, banging against the wall of the corridor, and heralding shouts form the furthest end of the hall. I stood still long enough to take in the ten or so Erasers, morphing out next to Maths class rooms, before Max grabbed my arm and pulled me into a run.

"Take the stairs!" She yelled, sprinting out in front of me as the sound of claws clattering on the floor got closer and closer. Not in a position to think much over the stream of cussing in my head I did as I was told.

We leapt up the stairs, two at a time, mutts on our tail as we climbed up to the first floor, my tranqs taking out any that got too close as we climbed up and up the flights. Instead of turning out into the top floor Max kept climbing, taking the stairs up to the open roof. We barrelled through the door, running out onto the flimsy rubber tiles, Max shouting,

"Jump over the railing" and pulling still further ahead of me, ready to jump over the metal rails that stopped students from toppling off the multi-story drop. Funnily enough, I was surprisingly ready to take a leap of faith with a girl who could fly...I mean it was that or stay grounded with a pack of angry Erasers - you'd be pretty stupid not to jump.

So, swallowing the urge to back out of a deadly fall to my death, I vaulted over the railing, every instinct I had in me screaming bloody murder as I began to fall. Max jumped after me, falling to my level and pulling me around into an awkward kind of hug, holding me tightly around the waist and yelling,

"Hold on!" I barely even got a tight enough grip before 15ft of feathery wings snapped out in the cold morning air. I yelped, both in pain and surprise at the sudden change in direction, dropping the tranq gun as I balled my fists in the back of her hospital gown; arms around her neck and legs clinging tightly around her waist (doing a fantastic impression of an inexperienced koala). We slowed down, flying like the downwards curve of a graph before climbing again, soaring slowly higher over the high school's morning lit lawns and towards the football pitches.

We soared higher, fifty feet and climbing, and I looked back down Max's back, trying not to get distracted by the huge feathery wings to focus on the Erasers, shuffling around on the rooftop.

"SNIPER!" I yelled over the wind, recognising the stand they were setting up and holding Max tighter as she sharply changed course, flying directly in front of the icey sun to throw off their aim. No bullets hit us, and only a few whistled past us as I squinted back at the pack.

We were pretty far away now, but, from the looks of it, I was watching a couple of Erasers shaking out...oh now that's just unfair...

"Max!" I yelled over the deafening wind, "they're coming at us in the air."

"I can't hear any choppers?!" Max shouted back.

"They're flying with wings like you!"

"Erasers with wings?!" Max screeched, dropping a foot in surprise as I yelped in confirmation.

"100 metres and counting," I yelled, watching them trying to gain altitude. I had a feeling Max would've been able to outfly them, even in her condition, but she was carrying an entire other human, so the Erasers weren't having too much trouble gaining on us. What they had in speed however, they lacked in skill, weaving ungracefully through the air, on and off course thanks to the turbulence.

They were all holding guns but seemed to be having difficulty taking aim and flying at the same time. If they got close enough however, we 'd be such an easy target aim wouldn't matter. My stomach lurched as a gun shot rang out, Max diving to miss the rounds they began to fire, flying haphazardly to give them a more difficult target. Feeling very unsteady I reached for the pistol in the back of my jeans, and gripping Max tightly with my left hand, my right one closed around the grip of the gun. Max, noticing what I pulled out of my jeans shrieked,

"YOU HAVE A GUN IN YOUR PANTS!?"

"No I'm just pleased to see you" I snapped sarcastically, trying to take aim with hands shaking from the overflow of adrenaline pumping through my veins. Max kindly steadied her flight path so I could get a clear shot, and holding my breath to try and steady my shot I took aim - praying that air currents and a one handed shot didn't prove the gun to be all but useless.

I fired at the closest Eraser, not hitting where I'd meant to, but a bullet through one wing sending him spiralling out of control anyway, falling through the air like a chicken dropped from a plane.

One of them shot at us again and I almost dropped the gun as Max swerved violently, zig zagging to avoid the shots, arms clamped around me tightly so she didn't drop me when she dodged.

I took aim as they caught up to us again, sending an Eraser to the right of their flock plummeting through the air, wings falling past him him like paper as he dropped through the air.

Three left, come on Fang, you can do this.

I missed with the next two shots, sending one Eraser down on the third, and another on the fourth; but I almost had to empty the whole barrel on the last one, missing thanks to their clumsy flapping. They may be huge targets, but damn they were crappy flyers; wobbling between different altitudes like drunks, they were probably more difficult to hit then Max was, only they didn't have the excuse of carrying a passenger. I watched the last one falling, not even moving the huge wings as he plummeted to earth, and I let out a breath of relief, yelling to Max over the wind,

"Got 'em all - we're clear!" She didn't answer and dimly I noticed we were loosing altitude, "Max?!"

"I can't…" Her voice cracked as an air current barrelled into us, flipping Max over onto her back.

She made no attempt to right us in the air again, in fact her arms around my waist went limp.

And we were falling.

"MAX!?" I yelled, holding her tightly to make sure we didn't fall away from each other. She was out cold, very pale, her skin freezing while her wet hair and wings flew past us like parts of a rag doll.

I looked down to see a field below us - we were too far above the ground to survive falling.

Oh Crap. "MAX!" I yelled, the hand still holding the pistol nudging her cheek (as if that would be what woke her up), "MAX!" But she stayed out cold.

I screwed up my eyes, pistol still in hand as I pushed her head up, pressing my forehead against hers, my heart racing like it was trying to crank out as many beats as it could before the enviable flattening. With some kind of twisted hope I threw my weight forwards, flipping us over - maybe if I hit the ground first Max might survive. But as I pulled her tighter into my chest I felt the muscles of her back contract oddly.

I looked up at her, only just tightening my grip in time. By the looks of it, Max was still unconscious, but her wings began to stretch out, slowing us down like a parachute before it was to late.

When we actually collided with the scratchy field of grass, I took the brunt of the blow; but instead of death on impact, I was blessed with pain similar to someone who'd been run over by a monster truck.

Pain shot through my chest like fire as Max rolled away a few feet away, and it took me a few seconds before I could bring myself to even try and inhale, the pain so strong I found I couldn't breathe without having to concentrate. Feeling half dead I tried to turn my head to check on Max, but the movement sent the world spinning, dimming to black before I could even try and fight unconsciousness...

* * *

><p><span>Max POV<span>:

Whispering was the first thing that reached me. Well, that's not technically true, pain was the first thing that reached me - it felt like I'd managed to break my muscles as well as a few bones.

I really, really didn't want to even _think_ about getting up, let alone fight, but if I was in the wrong hands, I knew my physical condition could only get a whole lot worse.

So with a huge effort, I forced my eyes open in the dim light. I tried pushing myself up a little, but propping myself up on one elbow was painful enough, let alone sitting up straight, and I fell back against the cotton sheets of the bed - panting hard, a clot of pain throbbing beneath the bridge of my nose.

"Max...?" I tried to make some kind of intimidating growl but it came out a little more pathetic - sounding more like a groan then a snarl. Someone sat down on my bed and, with my vision still blurry, I tried lashing out at the stranger, loose fists pawing at the air in what I hoped was my attacker's direction. "Hey, it's okay, it's me," hushed the voice, "it's alright Max, you're alright..." Finally, my brain slotted my memories into the right place and I relaxed, blinking at the still fuzzy outline of Rob, "you're onboard the CSM ship," he reassured me, "...lab coat free zone."

A feeling of safety ballooned in my chest, warmth spreading through me like red ink, and I screwed up my eyes, trying to block the ache pulsing through my bones so I could get ahold of the situation.

"...what happened?" I asked weakly, trying to prop myself up onto my elbows again and wincing as I lent on a wing. Rob put another pillow behind me so I could sit up a little more, his voice shadowed by a nervous chuckle,

"Well, we were going to ask you that." I stared at him and he grimaced, "We had all hands on deck scanning the networks for you - Valencia got a call from Ella and her friends about you going missing." I opened my mouth but before I could ask my question Rob answered it, "they're all at one of our safe hourses; Iggy hot wired my car before Ella could even give him the keys, I think he wanted to make sure they were out of harms way while you were MIA...can't blame him, you gave us a real scare..." I tried to frown but winced, the muscle contraction in my forehead kicking my headache up a notch,

"How'd you find me?"

"Well…" Rob paused a second, "that was the weird thing...we got something bleeping up on our GPS, one of those location markers y'know. Only no one knows who's put it there. It was the only lead we had, so I sent out a search party...and there you were - lying in a field, with some boy out cold next to you." Rob smirked, "don't know where you picked him up but he's a piece of work. We brought him in of course, restrained him just in case he was Itex; Bridget tried to give him a check up but he head butted her before she could see how many ribs he'd broken." I tried pushing myself to the edge of the bed with a wince, pausing to ask through gritted teeth,

"Where is he?" Rob tried to stop me as I pushed myself up right,

"Woah, hang fire...you can interrogate him when you're rested up - he's locked in the padded cell below deck, safe from the kids...didn't know what to do with him after he started spouting all kinds of crazy about helping you...the kid tried to talk himself out of having a loaded Itex-made gun." I tried to push Rob off, bottling the wave of nausea rising up my throat and almost smiling,

"Yeah I know, he's an idiot. He's not lying though..." I pushed my legs over the side of the bed, taking several deep breathes as Rob stared at me, stunned,

"You're kidding me...you trust this guy - he smells like iTex." I smirked,

"Yeah, that's cause we got attacked and taken back to the school - he took down a load of Erasers and got us both out." Rob screwed up his face, clearly skeptical

"...and you're sure he's not how they found you in the first place?" I shook my head,

"Ari told me-" my breath caught in my throat as that conversation came back to me - I could practically feel the confused vibes coming from Rob at the mention of his name. Pulling myself together, I shook my head bracingly, "...I'll explain it all later...point is, Fang's alright." I slid forwards slightly, securing my feet on the floor and pushing myself up very slowly. Rob caught my arm as I wobbled, almost falling back onto the bed. My legs were trembling violently as I forced them to hold my weight, and Rob gave me a look that said he plainly didn't think I should be up, but I scowled stubbornly,

"Fang doesn't know where he is or what's going on, he probably thought you were Itex..." teetering on the balls of my feet I almost fell to the floor, grabbing onto Rob just in time and grimacing apologetically, "considering he helped me out, it'd be nice if I went and put him out of his misery." Rob looked at me for a second but when I tried to take more of my own weight he put an arm around my shoulders to support me,

"Fine...I'll take you..." I grimaced gratefully.

As much as I hated to admit it, in this condition, I wasn't going to be making it very far on my own - at least I wasn't going anywhere at any great pace. Rob led me over to the door, holding it open with his foot and helping me hobble through.

"So," he asked lightly, where'd you pick up this Fang guy?"

The door closed behind us and we started slowly plodding down the corridor. I smirked,

"The local bar, y'know." He rolled his eyes and I winced as one of my bruised wings batted against the corner of the corridor. I tucked them both behind me a little tighter, grimacing at Rob, "we met at school - as in normal school-school. It's a long story...I'm not sure on a few details to be honest..."

He nodded, deciding not to push the subject any further, and helped me along the rest of the way in silence.

In a few minutes we stopped half way along a corridor, Rob letting me lean against the doorframe while he fiddled with the collection of keys hanging on his belt. I peered through the glass porthole in the door, seeing a yellow padded room beyond, occupied by a very disgruntled looking Fang. Rob found the right key, sliding it into the lock and pulling the door wide. Fang's face went from murderous to perplexed as I stepped into view, and I gave him a small wave as I pulled myself into the room.

"Sorry about earlier son," Rob said, bouncing on his heels slightly and leaning into the room, "we had to be cautious - for the kids sake." Leaning heavily on the padded wall I smiled at Rob who gave us a loose salute, "I'll leave you two too it then," and with that he pushed the door mostly closed, walking back down hall and leaving me to smile awkwardly at Fang. As Rob had said, Fang looked like he was having trouble breathing with a few broken ribs.

"You alright?" I asked carefully. His eyebrows raised comically,

"...I've been better...you?" I smirked flatly,

"Kinda feel like crap to be honest..." Fang's forehead scrunched up a little and I raised my eyebrows at him,

"Rob told me you were quite the fighter when you came round." Fang grimaced, saying slowly,

"I thought iTex had just picked us up," he raised his eyebrows again, "I take it we're not back there though..." I shook my head,

"The CSM tracked us down - they're a company Dr M founded when she found out about Itex. Rob," I jerked my thumb at the door, "the guy that was just here, he's been researching on iTex for ages for the government - trying to shut the whole thing down. Good ol' Uncle Sam bought this place, the CSM cruiseliner - we've been using as a kind of living space for the kids I managed to rescue from Itex."

"...You've been rescuing kids?" I shrugged awkwardly, slowly rambling over details,

"Well...Rob pin-pointed a few Itex bases, and I checked them out and trying to find Ari." I felt the itch in my nose that told me tears were coming and looked down at my feet, forcing myself to hold it together, "...I never found him...but..it turned out they were keeping kids there like...well like me...so I got them out..." I screwed up my eyes, trying to keep a lid on the waterworks and box up my emotions so I could deal with them later - alone.

Fang got up from where he was sat, still breathing cautiously, his features pinched with pain and one hand cradling his ribs as he slowly walked over, stopping to stand in front of me. I tried to shut down my emotions as I looked up at him, practically having to keep a physical lid on them when I was met with such an expressive face - I mean, its Fang, since when does this ever happen.

"I'm sorry about Ari." He said quietly. At that my knees buckled and I fell to the floor painfully, my wings flaring out for balance, but only hurting me more so; I was pretty sure I'd pulled most of my flight muscles, and considering they'd been recently trampled on by Erasers, to say they were sore was a bit of an understandment.

Fang knelt down next to me, still cautious to take it very slow with his ribs. Either he was sure I'd shatter if she showed any other comforting gestures, or he'd reached his limit for showing emotion today; but whichever it was, he only made sure to sit so close that our legs were pressed up against each other, though that in itself might be considered a Fang hug. I gritted my teeth, trying to keep words to a minimum,

"He was counting on me to rescue him…" I drew in a shaky breath, fiddling with my hospital gown and pausing to look up at Fang. On closer inspection he had some head wounds; a split lip, a budding black eye, and that slightly hollowed look of having survived a very dangerous fight. Still, he looked ready to listen. I sighed, still trying to keep it short (for both our sakes),

"...I've saved a lot of kids Fang...but I could never find him...I looked, and looked, and looked for him - for all of my flock... But I never found them. And now I've let Itex turn him into that...I don't want to even think about what might've happened to the others..."

Barely putting any pressure behind his touch, Fang began to trace comforting patterns onto my knee with a finger. We sat in silence for a few moments and I just tried to concentrate on the path of his finger on my knee, finding my head had come to rest on his shoulder and tears had started to drip, silently, down my cheeks.

"I'm sorry..." Fang said quietly. I sniffed, taking my head off his shoulder and rubbing the excess water off my face,

"S'nothing to be sorry about - at least everyone's okay. Iggy made sure Ella and Nudge got to a safe house." I looked up at Fang to see him frowning.

"What?" I asked, Fang not looking at me as he said slowly,

"...I was thinking, before you got here...do you know how I got involved with the Institute?" I shook my head and he scowled harder, "my Mum used to work in a really high position there." I stared at him,

"Your Mum's..."

"she was a very high up member of Itex apparently," he stared down at me, "she near enough forced me into the Institute but Nudge never knew anything about it. Why just me? And why the huge coverup? I mean sure I'd never have gone into it all if I knew the Institute was actually Itex, but she could've threatened me, hell Itex could've threatened to hurt her. They could've just turned me into someone like-" Fang paused, apparently not wanting to say 'you'.

"It's called a mutant." Fang nodded, looking sheepish and I exhaled slowly, "I dunno, Ar-...he told me that you were like their last resort plan, but even then why would they get you to 'make friends' with me? They could've just hacked the school's database and stormed the Martinez's house. But they attacked _both_ us in town and took _both _of us back to Itex. They could've taken any human off the streets, hell if it was because they didn't want you blabbing they could've just finished you off...but they took you too.." Fang frowned and I looked up at him carefully, "...you sure you're not a mutant?" He smirked,

"Pretty dang sure yeah - I can't fly." I frowned at him,

"Flying's not the only thing I can do." Fang raised his eyebrows but I didn't go into details of my hyperspeed, asking him instead, "so you're sure you can't do anything strange?"

"Well I'm not a wizard." Fang answered raising an eyebrow, "but Jeb did give me this belt; as long as I don't move I can stay invisible. It's only supposed to work for three seconds but mine's faulty or something." I raised my eyebrows and he shrugged, pressing a button on his belt. The finger tracing patterns on my legs stopped. I could still feel the tip of it resting on my leg, but I couldn't even guess at where Fang was exactly. I'd seen tails, projectile poison and teeth so long they needed to be filed, hell I'd seen a chameleon mutant, but even he had a visible outline - Fang was just gone. I reached my hand towards him, making contact with warm skin, and with a ripple like a hologram Fang reappeared, frowning. I was squashing his nose.

I pulled my hand back from his face with an apolagetic smile and he rolled his eyes,

"I can't do it without the belt though - so it's not something in my DNA." I frowned, not really sure how to make sense of any of it.

A wave of tiredness washed over me like a yawn of warm air, and I ran a hand down my face trying to concentrate; slumping a little, my wings automatically pulling themselves around Fang and I like a cocoon.

"They're really pretty." He said carefully, apparently inspecting the blended colour change in my feathers. I almost snorted; oh good...as long as they were pretty, cause that's been worth all the pain. I gave them a rather miserable look, but Fang seemed actually interested - almost like the Martinez family when I first landed in their back yard. I gave Fang an exasperated look but he turned round with an unusually innocent expression,

"What? I'm human - most of us dream of flying. It's not every day you get up close and personal, with a girl with wings." I rolled my eyes, gently messing up his hair by running the flight feathers closest to him over his head (drawling),

"Wow, so that's the smooth talk that gets all the ladies." Fang chuckled silently, not bothering to set his hair straight and just enlightening me with a very rare Fang smile,

"..You're really fluffy," I snorted again, a little less sarcastically, and he reached out a hand questioningly, not breaking eye contact but not exactly popping the question 'can I stroke the fluffy thing'. I pulled my wing into his hand and he jumped, aparently surprised that it was warm, but gently ran his hand through the downy feathers. I let his fingers card through the downy fluff, and very slowly start to trail along the longer feathers, straightening out a few crooked ones. It felt a little like someone playing with your hair.

After a while I let my eyes fall shut, Fang working his way along the wing, and by the time he'd reached the tip I'd found that my head was lolled on his shoulder and I'd almost fallen asleep. I sat up straighter, a little embarrassed, Fang giving me a half smile,

"Relaxing is it?" I curled my hair behind my ears,

"Yeah, kind of...I've never had that done before."

When the kids were upset at the school, mostly Wren, I used to straighten out her feathers to calm her down (it usually sent her to sleep) but noone had ever done it for me. Hell, no one had even see my wings apart from the CSM crew, and the Martinez family.

The door opened with a squeak and both of us jumped, looking around as Dr M cried,

"Max! Fang! Oh thank God.." She swept down on the both of us, apparently too caught up with relief to realise that she was both destroying our calm atmosphere and endangering our physical state. The both of us winced as she threw her arms around our shoulders, Dr M suddenly seeming to remember we weren't exactly in the mood for heavy-handed affection and drawing back, arms pulled tight against her chest,

"Sorry, sorry-"

"Sorry" Rob finished, appearing in the doorway a little breathless "...Valencia just rushed up, didn't have time to-" Dr M put a hand on his upper arm, hushing him with a worried look at mine and Fang's cut and bruised faces,

"We can swap stories later honey, for now, I want to make sure they're both fixed up..." she turned back to Fang and I, fluttering with details, "Bridget tells me Fang has broken ribs but wasn't too keen to check on Max after that last rescue mission..didn't want to risk getting punched again..." I grinned sheepishly.

"Are Iggy, Nudge and Ella alright?" Fang asked. Dr M waved a hand at him,

"Fine, _fine_, they're in the canteen now. You can join them once you're all bandaged up."

Dr M walked over to Fang, holding out a hand to help him up, and Fang briefly smiled at her but got to his feet on his own. Rob pulled me up, throwing an arm around my shoulders like before, helping me hobble along as Fang and I were escorted off to the medical bay...

* * *

><p>Fang had apparently broken a few ribs, and apart from various cuts, bruises, and one hell of a concussion he was otherwise fine. I, on the other hand, had indeed sprained most of my flight muscles, and was suffering from the assorted battle wounds you'd expect after loosing a fight against Erasers. Grudgingly I took the pain mediation Dr M gave me, and finally Dr M and Rob escorted Fang and I down to get some food.<p>

I was still aching and even more tired, but my stomach was almost hurting more then my injuries at this point, and if I could've run to the ship's canteen I would've. By the time we'd got there, both Fang and I were a little out of breathe (me because I couldn't walk and Fang because he could only breathe shallowly). Rob pulled the door open, and he and Dr M led the way into the room. We'd barely made it over the threshold before I saw a little blonde girl running towards us,

"MAX!" I winced as she collided with my legs, hugging them tightly but drawing back a little suddenly as she realised what I was wearing. I smiled using what little mental energy I had to shove up a few mind blocks, watching anxiously as she stared at my hospital gown. Damn, I should've changed, and probably showered - Fang and I probably stink of Itex antiseptic...the kids could have flashbacks or something.

"What happened?" She said quietly. I could feel her pushing against the paper thin walls of my mind but I ruffled her hair,

"Little wear and tear - no biggie." She pouted at me but didn't have time to ask anything else as more mutants leapt from their dinner tables, rushing towards me and gathering in a huddle around my legs, halting as they smelt Itex's classic eau de parfum. It probably didn't help that I was also dressed in the uniform of any mutant kids' hell, my bloodied arms and face not helping the either the hospital get up, or the kids' first impressions of an unknown human (Fang) currently standing behind me.

"What happened Max?" Gazzy asked, standing behind Angel and looking worried, "Rob told us you got in a fight." I grinned at him,

"Well we couldn't let a load of Erasers strut down the street like it was no body's business. This is Fang," I threw a thumb over my shoulder at the boy in question, "he helped me take 'em down - even saved my ass once or twice." The kids all still looked concerned, a reptile-kid flicking out his tongue worriedly,

"You smell like them." I grimaced apologetically,

"Yeah, they tried to drag us both in for a chat - didn't work out too well for them let me tell you," I pointed to the claw marks on my cheek, "see this? That's not one paw - it's four of them, only managing to graze me once." Gazzy looked uncomfortable but he smiled a little as I winked at him.

"I'm sure Max'll wash after she's eaten." said a voice from over the other side of the canteen, "but I think we all know she's going to be a forgetful idiot while she's still hungry." I grinned over the the sea of heads, smiling at Ig, who was quickly striding over - the crowd of mutants parting to let him through. He pulled me into a very gentle hug, Rob ushering kids back to their tables as Iggy whispered in my ear,

"They didn't take you back did they?" I snorted cooly,

"They Goddam tried. Might've managed it, if Fang wasn't there." Iggy drew back from me, grimacing as he let me go, and stepped around me, almost attempting to pull Fang into a hug; but, at seeing Fang's hand cradling his ribs, he settled for one of those stupid manyly handshake things, the boys both nodding at each other like businessmen. Iggy turned back to me, raising his little finger - the sign Jeb taught us to use at the school to tell each other we were okay. I nodded but didn't raise my finger, feeling better on the CSM's ship then I had done in Itex, but still very much aware I was (for the most part) a walking train wreck - more so than usual, I mean.

"You guys sit down," Iggy said, grinning, "I'll go get you some food." I didn't even have time to thank him before I had to brace myself again, Ella running at us with Nudge on her tail - not literally, I should add; unlike most of the kids in this room Nudge did not have any tails, talons, or fangs.

After mushy greetings, all of which ending up being quite painful for me and Fang, we hobbled over to a table and sat down; Ella, Nudge and Fang on one bench, and Angel, Gazzy and I sitting opposite. Iggy sat down next to Ella, sliding mine and Fang's food onto the table, and letting us refuel before he started asking any questions.

After getting half way through our third portion Angel was the first one to speak, her head tilting towards Fang,

"...He eats a lot for a human." Fang glanced up at her, his mouth full and looking unsure about how he was supposed to react. I grinned, both at his face and at Angel's confused expression,

"Yeah, he's a bit of a pig really." Fang glared at me but Angel frowned,

"If he's a pig, what does that make you?" Iggy snorted, Ella shamelessly laughing, and I scowled at the both of them, answering sweetly,

"Well Fang's weird for a human." Angel cuddled Celeste tighter, her voice very childlike,

"He's not weird, he's just nervous cause he's not surrounded by normal people. It's weird that he likes cream cheese...it's kinda weird how much he likes you..but that's what happens in movies." I raised my eyebrows, Fang glaring at Angel, clearly confused, his cheeks ever so slightly flushed.

"We're not in the movies Ange," I said gently, bopping a finger on her cute little nose.

"Fang," Iggy offered, "meet Angel; telepath, mind-reader, and fish linguist." Angel grinned at Fang but he just stared blankly at her. Whether he was a little mind blown by her list of many talents, or whether the two were having a mental conversation, I didn't know; either way, it took a few seconds before Angel turned back to me,

"He does smell bad though." I grinned at her,

"All boys smell bad - have you met your brother?" Angel didn't laugh, looking at me really nervously, and I grimaced guiltily, "sorry sweetheart, I promise as soon as we've eaten we'll both get showered to wash it off." Angel tilted her head,

"What, together?" I choked on my food, Iggy grinning at Angel's innocent expression like he was having the best conversation of his life; and before I could swallow my food she explained, "well I've seen humans do that in movies alot." I swallowed my mouthful, shaking my head at her,

"I think we're going to have to check what kind of movies you're watching..." Angel frowned, thankfully oblivious, and before she could question me any further I pressed on, "why don't you and Gazzy go downstairs - get away from us smelling so bad." Gazzy nodded profusely, jumping to his feet with a small wave goodbye. Jumping from the bench he bounced over to the door, Angel hesitating only a second before following her brother. We watched them go, Angel taking Gazzy's hand and trying to make him skip out the canteen door.

"Gazzy?" Fang asked quietly, now out of earshot of the siblings. I grinned at him,

"Clue's in the name - stay up wind." Fang looked taken aback but didn't question the statement - apparently this was not the weirdest thing he'd heard or seen today.

Now that they younger kids had gone, Iggy leant ominously over the table, whispering,

"So...what happened after you and Fang ran off." I sighed. Putting down my fork, I began to regurgitate the story, missing out the grizzly details, Fang only interrupting to take over any Ari details - as, pathetic though it may be, I was still having a little trouble saying his name without feeling like the worst goddam person/flock leader/sister in the world.

When we'd finished there was silence for a second, Ella being the first to speak but doing so very slowly,

"I don't understand...if Fang got so badly beaten up, how was he in any kind of state to get you out? I mean you can't fight Erasers all that well normally...and, from the sounds of it, Fang was as good as dead in that street..." Fang shook his head,

"I don't know either. Last thing I remember from town was feeling like most of my bones had been broken. Next thing I know, I'm waking up, and it was like they'd all been glued back together. Hell I barely felt any pain when Jeb shot me up with something - and if he's a good guy I'm guessing that was just adrenaline..." I frowned, running a hand through my hair, my voice lowering, similar to someone trying to talk a class of kids through 'how to get away from a very hungry crocodile',

"Not even Hagen couldn't have fixed Fang up that fast, let alone Jeb. But what Fang looked like after fighting the Erasers downtown was completely different to when I saw him when I woke up in Itex - he should've puffed up like a ballon but nothing looked even slightly swollen. He had a few bruises and stuff, but there's no way in hell he could've run anywhere after the Erasers had finished with him in town. It just doesn't make sense."

The five of us sat there for a moment, Fang and I pushing food around our plates, and all of us trying to work out what the hell was going on.

"Max?" Rob said a little loudly.

I turned to see him walking over. He waited till he'd reached the head of our table before speaking again, asking quietly,

"I don't mean to hassle you...but could you come back and eat. The kids are getting a little antsy with their good sense of smell and...y'know..." I stood up in agreement, falling back down again as my legs gave out, and landing back on the bench a little jarringly. Gritting my teeth, I tried again, a lot slower this time, waving a hand at Rob,

"Sure, sure, sorry - Fang and I will go get cleaned up." Rob gave me a gracious nod and left us, Iggy muttering in imitation of Angel's voice,

"In the same shower...?"

Unfortunately for the Igster, though my physical well-being was a little tarnished, I was still very much (the one, the only) Maximum Ride, and though it was a pathetic swing, I still smacked him over the head; hard enough to shut him up but not enough to miss a flash of that troubling trickster grin...

* * *

><p><strong>...Ahhh, the end of the chapter...the time of the story where I venture forth into the internet to cross-reference some far-fetched, vaguely interesting, completely useless fact - in case you thought this was a waste of your time, so at least you can say you might've learned something.<strong>

**'By the time you have read this the Earth will have spun you 1450m' - I believe that more then qualifies for my exercise quota this month :P**

**Fly on  
>M<strong>


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